Sea of Emotion
by NessieGG
Summary: FINISHED!Heero Yuy gets the chance to leave behind Panama City and his tragic past by joining the ship The Golden Wave. He soon finds that escaping won't be so easy with Colonel Relena Darlian as his superior. A wave of feelings hit the pair hard.
1. We'd like to ask you to join the crew

Warnings: Traditional pairings, minus one (Dorothy/Quatre). This fic focuses mainly on Heero and Relena, but not for a while. Involves one major original character. References to sexual situations - NOT A LEMON (uh. . . yet)! - but probably just jokes and stuff.  
  
Rating: As of now, PG. I'd rate it lower, except for some jokes that some readers, I know, would find offensive.  
  
Categories: Angst, adventure, romance, but especially alternate universe. So don't ya come crying, telling me my charas or OOC. Please review. Enjoy the fic!  
  
*~Sea of Emotion~*  
  
(20078, A.D)  
  
Panama City. Tourist trap though it was, it's a wonderful place to live. Or so was his opinion. Many people dreamed of living in Florida. He was one of those lucky people that were actually born there.  
  
On land.  
  
Even now, as the salty breeze swept his hair, he watched the ocean. He quite simply loved it - the sight, the feel, the scent, even its edible inhabitants. He enjoyed the sound of the waves, crashing along the white, sandy shore and the jagged, wet rocks that were embedded in it.  
  
Yes, he loved Panama City.  
  
But he loved the ocean more.  
  
Today was one of those great days. The sun beat down on him, scorching his skin, particularly his scalp, since his dark hair did nothing to stop the absorbing of sunlight. But he wasn't bothered by it. Heat was welcomed with open arms - it was something that kept him alive (and kept up the golden- brown tan on his body).  
  
He was laying on the sand now, sunglasses on, with his hands under his head, and his eyes shut, trying to ignore the gaping women that went by.  
  
To him, women were annoying. And no one could blame him, with all of the female half of the human race climbing on his back.  
  
He had quite a list of enemies for that. Oh well. If they wanted to fight, he'd negotiate. . .before breaking them in two.  
  
He was half-asleep when an unwanted voice piped up.  
  
"Enjoying your day off, Heero?"  
  
Heero removed the glasses, squinting slightly at the light. "Hello, Dr. J."  
  
Doctor J grinned, his silver hair blowing around his shoulders. Heero wondered why he didn't disintegrate in that ever-present lab coat. "Hello, Heero. Maybe next week, you can actually sleep in your apartment."  
  
He sat up. "Not really. The light helps me stray off."  
  
"Of what, your brain?" His smile, if possible, widened. "I was wondering if you'd give me a hand later tonight, but it doesn't seem to probable."  
  
The sunglasses came back on as he went back again. "Not really," he said again. "But I'll see what happens."  
  
"Nothing ever happens, and you still don't come."  
  
He allowed himself a small smirk. "Usually not, Doctor." He propped up on his elbows as a thought struck. "Hey, Doc, since I'm not your employee today, I can be personal right?"  
  
"Hm. That depends on your question."  
  
"Well." He glanced over to look at him. "Why do they call you Doctor J when you run a pawn shop?"  
  
"Now that's too personal, Heero," he told him. "Maybe someday you'll know, but really. I don't see it happening."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Well, then," Doctor J said, turning, "if you can make it, I'll need you around seven."  
  
"Got it." And Heero went back to sleep.  
  
***  
  
He awoke to voices nearby. Opening one eye, he turned the concealed blue toward the speakers.  
  
"He looks good enough. . . "  
  
"Sure, but he'd have to be able to handle it. And have a devotion to it. She won't accept him, otherwise."  
  
He saw the man with the braid grin at the man with blonde hair. "Well, if his personality doesn't fetch her out, his manliness might."  
  
The blonde snorted. "Highly unlikely."  
  
"Either way." The man with the braid turned toward him. As he walked to Heero, he sat up. "Hey, buddy," he greeted.  
  
"Can I help you?" Heero asked, looking at the ocean.  
  
"Maybe." The man extended his hand. "The name's Duo Maxwell. I work on the ship the Golden Wave. I was wondering, do you have any sea experience?"  
  
Heero looked at him now. "Experience? That depends. What kind do you mean?"  
  
Duo shrugged. "What you got?"  
  
"Soldiering."  
  
"Really?" Duo pulled a notepad out of his pocket. "Heero Yuy. Current occupancy: Assistant to a pawn broker." He looked up. "And you're telling me ya got soldiering experience?"  
  
"Look, pal." Heero stood up, scowling. "I don't know how you got information on me, but I was trained to fight in the ocean since I was five. Whatever you want me for, you should accept that."  
  
Duo placed a hand on his hip. "Really?" he said again. He beckoned to his companion. "Introduce yourself."  
  
"My name is Quatre Raberba Winner," the blonde said. "Heero Yuy, you can ignore this idiot."  
  
"Hey!' Duo exclaimed. "Watch it, I rule over you."  
  
"Technically." Quatre nodded to him. "I work as the medic on the Golden Wave, and Braid Boy here is the weapons chief."  
  
A line creased on Heero's brow. "And I should know this. . .why?"  
  
Quatre smiled. "We'd like you to join the crew."  
  
For a moment, Heero repeated the words in his head, trying to find a loophole. Had he heard what he thought he had? Leave the land? The answer needed careful planning. Give himself a few minutes. . .  
  
One was enough. He'd have to know what he was needed for and not look too eager.  
  
"What's the catch?" he asked (what he hoped was) skeptically.  
  
Duo laughed. "No catch, pal. Captain Merquise wants more bounty hunters for his ship. Panama City, we heard, has a top-notch man for the job. That's you, Yuy."  
  
An eyebrow was raised. "Top-notch, huh? Well, I must be deaf, because I definitely haven't heard that."  
  
"A member of the crew has some connections," Duo said, "and we found you here."  
  
Heero took a moment to register all of this. . .hold the phone. "Did you say bounty hunters?" he faltered.  
  
"Yup." Quatre crossed his arms. "Sea damage is getting heavier. There are water pirates crawling the ocean floor, Mr. Yuy. They need to be taken care of, and the Golden Wave has set out to do that."  
  
Duo placed his hands behind his head. "Mr. Yuy, do you really like the pawn business?"  
  
Heero winced. No, he thought. Not particularly. Sure, it kept him fed and paid the rent, but it wasn't really a good type of occupancy for him.  
  
"I'm more of a sea guy," he replied finally.  
  
Duo tilted his head. If that were so, then how come he'd taken this long to decide that he wanted to be in the water? "Well," he said, "how 'bout it? Would you be interested in joining the Golden Wave?"  
  
"Just like that?" Heero inquired. "It's a yes-or-no question?"  
  
"Not exactly," Quatre quipped. "You'll have to get approval from the colonel. But," he looked him up and down, "I think you'll do." Fishing around in his windbreaker, he handed him a card. "That's all you need to know. Be at the ship base at eight, tomorrow morning. That is," he added, "if you'd like to join us?"  
  
Heero looked from him to Duo, then to the vast blue stretching before him as if it gave him an ultimatum. Leave land and go to sea to make a few quick bucks. Stay on land and practically starve for a pawn shop. The answer was obvious.  
  
"I'll see you tomorrow morning."  
  
Both men smiled, and then walked away.  
  
***  
  
"Doc, I'm here!" Heero called.  
  
"You're joking," the doctor answered from behind the purchase counter. "You never come on your day off."  
  
"I thought I'd do a last bit of work before I leave."  
  
"Oh, well, that's nice of you, Heero.what?" Doctor J looked at him through the little goggles that seemed to be permanently attached over his eyes. "Heero," he said incredulously, "you're leaving Panama?"  
  
"I'm leaving the land altogether, Doc," Heero said. "I'm going to sea."  
  
"Heero Yuy," the doctor replied sternly, "you are not your father."  
  
"No," he agreed, grabbing a dust rag and working on the shelves. "I've been told I've got more of my mother in me."  
  
The old man scowled. "Though terrific, your mother was also a very sensible woman. She didn't go off into the sea for fun. She had to earn a living by it."  
  
"That's exactly what I'm doing, Doc." He showed his mentor the card. "The pay's not bad, even for beginners."  
  
Doctor J started. "The Golden Wave? Heero, that ship's for bounty hunters!"  
  
"I know that." He lifted a small clock and attacked the dust bunnies on it. "Let's call it a challenge, shall we, Doctor?"  
  
Doctor J frowned. "Bounty hunting is not a business for city/sea-side little boys."  
  
"Doc," Heero said sincerely in his gruff tone, "I appreciate your concern. But I don't need it. Have you ever dreamed of something more? I know you love the antique business, but didn't you ever think about 'what if?'"  
  
"Heero, I'm not nineteen years old," he told him. "My 'what if's' are all gone." He smiled slightly. "But Heero, your parents would be proud that you're taking to the ocean."  
  
Heero looked out the window as the sun was beginning to set. "I know. But Doctor J, somehow, it's more than that. It's almost as if the sea's calling me to it." He shrugged his shoulders. "I know it's crazy. But the water has always been a part of me. It's called me before, and I ignored it. I won't do that again."  
  
His mentor rested a friendly hand on his shoulder. "The ocean has no voice, young man. What may be calling you is your future." He became serious. "Promise me: Don't block it with your past."  
  
Heero gave him one nod. "Thank you, Doc. I'll write."  
  
"Good!" he called as he went out the door. "Goodbye, Heero!" When the door closed, he sighed. "Be safe."  
  
***  
  
The next morning was foggy, definitely one of those days you sleep in on. But Heero could do anything but sleep. He had packed everything the previous night, bought things he'd need. He had prepared well - but not for the sensation seeing the Golden Wave would give him.  
  
The ship had earned its title well, it seemed. The submarine was almost like a space shuttle; it certainly seemed to be. But the fans on the rear of the ship told otherwise. The color was buttercup yellow - thus the name, which was printed on the side in capital blue letters.  
  
Duo spotted him first, and led two men over to the newcomer. "Heero Yuy," he said happily, "you made it after all."  
  
Heero nodded, shouldering his large duffel bag. "What do I do?" he asked.  
  
"You can start off by meeting these guys," Duo said. He nodded at the two other men. One was Asian and wore a deep frown, the other had green eyes and brown hair that swept over one of them, though on him, it looked wonderful - each of them could easily win over three-fourths of Panama City's female population.  
  
"I'm Wufei Chang," the Asian one said. "I'm the behavior monitor." He smirked. "In other words, be nice to me."  
  
"Trowa Barton," one-eye spoke up. "I run the machinery controls and make sure nothing breaks down."  
  
"Pleasure," Heero said curtly.  
  
They both nodded, their actions contrasting deeply with Duo's.  
  
"You'll be able to meet the captain later," Duo quipped. "His name is Zechs Merquise - that's Captain Merquise to you, and us - and don't forget one thing."  
  
"What?"  
  
Wufei answered. "Never, repeat, NEVER disrespect the colonel."  
  
"Huh?" Heero frowned. "Who is he?"  
  
"I believe the question is, 'Who is she?'"  
  
They all turned their heads to see what Heero instantly classified to be an angel.  
  
Duo, Trowa, and Wufei saluted to a beauty of their age. She did the same to them, though with no real sincerity.  
  
"So, you're the newby," the woman said. Heero marveled at her. She had a wonderful voice (and a wonderful body). The thought made him mentally wince. The woman seemed strict, definitely not the girlfriend-type, but any man would fall to his feet - if she commanded them. She was short, but the black leather boots with the three-inch heels added onto her height. The forest green leggings and skin-tight blouse seemed to cling exactly where it needed to. "I've heard about you," she continued. "Mr. Winner told me you've come to join the crew. Interesting."  
  
He extended his hand. "My name is Heero Yuy. It's an honor, ma'am."  
  
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "Well, then. An honor to what? To meet me or to know you're getting paid?"  
  
"I, er." He lowered his hand. She didn't seem intent on shaking it anyway.  
  
"Well, speak up. Which is it?"  
  
"An honor to meet you, ma'am." Yes, she was an angel all right, he admitted. An angel from Hell.  
  
She nodded. "Well. I am Relena Darlian, but you will call me Colonel Darlian. Is that understood?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am."  
  
"Hn." She glanced him up and down then slowly circled him, eyeing every inch of his body, and he felt extremely anxious. She made little noises, some of approval, some of the opposite. When she was looking at his feet for some unknown reason, he didn't resist a glance at her. Her butt was certainly nothing to sneeze at. . .  
  
Relena whirled around. "Something interest you, Yuy? Please tell me what you think of me, I'd like to know how you evaluate my physical attraction."  
  
On a scale from 1 to 1,000 she got infinity. "I, uh, I don't think anything, ma'am," he stammered. His gut twisted. God, he was a man, he had hormones, and she was a beautiful woman with a perfect anatomy. What did she expect?  
  
Her arms folded. "Is that so?" Relena leaned forward so that her mouth was centimeters from his. "Mr. Yuy, I must tell you. . ." Her eyes closed before flashing open with narrowed brows, and her hand slashed across his face. "You're a terrible liar."  
  
The others winced.  
  
"And also, Yuy, while you are on board this ship, you will follow the orders of Captain Merquise and myself. If that is not done, I will personally end your imaginative life. Oh," she turned and called over her shoulder, "that includes not feeling me up."  
  
He felt red burn his cheeks just slightly. "Yes, ma'am."  
  
Duo grinned and slapped his back once she had gone. "Gorgeous, isn't she? A real piece of art."  
  
Heero could only nod.  
  
"Eh, don't even think of it," Duo advised. "That lady is more solid than steel and colder than ice. She doesn't like men, save her brother, and really, she would never give her time for them. And don't ever ask to buy her a drink. I did once," he paused for emphasis, "and she had me confined in a rat-infested cell for two days. I actually knew this guy who kissed her while she was drunk - which doesn't happen often."  
  
"What happened to him?" Heero asked.  
  
Wufei grinned. "She shot him. With none-too-nice words of farewell, might I add. We mean it, Yuy. She's not one to mess with. Colonel Relena Darlian is made for catching bounty heads, not for romanticizing."  
  
Heero breathed deeply. "I'll remember that."  
  
"Good." Trowa nodded. "I think the captain's free now. He'll want to meet you."  
  
And they headed toward the ship.  
  
**********************************  
  
Gundam Girl: Well, that's chapter one. I really like this idea. And Zechs is in the next chapter!!! I'll admit, I love the anime bad guys, most of the time. Vicious, awesome. I love CB. Zechs is my object' la drool. I even thought Malfoy in the Harry Potter movie was radical.  
  
Um. . .REVIEW!!!!!!!!! 


	2. I've been told that a while ago you were...

Gundam Girl: Hey, the ML should be happy I finally got this out. As for the FFN crew, thanks for reviewing, guys! Here's chapter 2!  
  
Sea of Emotion  
  
Heero followed Trowa and the others onto the ramp that lead to the Golden Wave's entrance. Quatre volunteered to take his bag to his dormitory room for him, while Wufei unlocked the doors of the corridors that would lead them to Captain Merquise.  
  
"Now just enjoy yourself, relax, have fun, and be careful!" Duo said cheerfully, mocking the perfect den mother.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Jeez, you need some sunshine, Yuy. I thought you'd get enough of it in Florida. Sheesh."  
  
"Shut up, Maxwell," scowled Wufei.  
  
"Whatever you say, Wu-m-"  
  
"Don't even think about it," the Chinese behavior monitor warned, sliding his slanted eyes toward him with little kindness.  
  
"Check."  
  
They pulled open the final door to reveal a room where the décor consisted of purple curtains on floor-to-ceiling windows and royal blue carpets. Looking out one of the windows at the rising sun was a tall man with blond hair of a length that grazed the back of his thighs. His head turned to reveal stunning blue eyes. Heero could have sworn they matched Colonel Darlian's, except for the factor that his wasn't frosted over with ice.  
  
"Ah. Mr. Yuy." He smiled and extended a hand. "I'm Captain Zechs Merquise. It's a pleasure to have Florida's finest joining our crew."  
  
"An honor to meet you, Sir," Heero returned, shaking his hand. "I'd like to thank you for inviting me."  
  
"No need for that." Captain Merquise laughed. "We get one or two new members nearly every other week. Some people say that we are free with our calls, but I actually spend a lot of time deciding my crew. I hope you won't think little of me."  
  
He struggled not to frown. The man acted like a comedian, not really the type of people he preferred to have ruling over him. Still, he had a sort of respect for him, and besides, he HAD been invited to the ship. "No, Sir."  
  
"Good. I really have nothing to doubt about you, Yuy, since you've already passed Colonel Darlian's inspections. Understand, her judgment is far better than mine. What she says in almost like the word of God on this ship."  
  
"Sir." Heero nodded his agreement.  
  
The captain looked somewhat amused. "Dear goodness, another stoic. Eh, Duo?"  
  
Duo grinned after feigning a sigh. "I tried, Sir."  
  
"I'm sure. Well, Yuy," he concluded, "get situated. I'm sure these men will explain the rules to you."  
  
"Sir," the four of them chorused before exiting the room.  
  
"What was that room?" Heero asked when the door shut.  
  
"Captain Zechs uses it to greet new members or to dismiss them. The Colonel uses it sometimes, too. Many have seen her go in. But that woman's as much of a mystery as what garbage is on the bottom of the sea."  
  
Wufei cut in with business. "We don't have a 'lights out.' This isn't summer camp," he explained. "Breakfast is at eight o' clock. My advice would be to get up at six if you want a shower in the morning and aren't set to get it at night. Bathrooms are pretty crowded around that time. Also, if you're caught in the women's dormitory without an invitation, you could be seriously punished. This ship is run strictly, and foolishness is hardly tolerated."  
  
Duo smiled slyly and whispered behind his hand, "That's why I'm never caught. Besides, I always have an invitation, though sometimes it's from myself."  
  
Heero winced. This guy was nuts. And he ran the weapons?  
  
"Last thing: If you're interested, you can always join the rest of us at the bar after eight when all posts are handed over to the elderly-kinda people," Wufei added. "There's a party there every night. I'm not really into fun, but they kill time."  
  
"But they ARE fun," Duo objected.  
  
"I don't care, Maxwell."  
  
"Yeesh, Wu-man. Get some Prozac."  
  
Wufei stopped cold, and turned towards the gabbing braided moron. "What did you just say?"  
  
"Uh..." Duo gulped. "Get some Prozac?" He hurriedly looked at his watch. "Oops, it's my time of the month. So I'll feed Trixie before the idiot kills himself with that knife again, gotta jet." This was all said very quickly with no thought whatsoever and therefore making no sense.  
  
Trowa blinked and sighed. "Don't even both to decode that. All you'll get is gibberish." Heero smirked.  
  
"Right."  
  
Trowa made a small shifting of weight. "But you really should make an appearance tonight."  
  
"You're in on this, too?"  
  
He shook his head. "I'm only saying so because it will satisfy Colonel Darlian that you're getting on well. She used to bring in the men from miles...out to sea, of course."  
  
Heero perked at this new bit of information. "Really?" he asked quietly, pretending to be uninterested.  
  
Trowa's smirk was nearly undetectable. "See for yourself."

---

"'And I know that the heat goes on.'" Hilde sang softly in the nurse's office as Relena walked in. "Yo, Lena, what's up?" She turned and frowned. "You looked ticked. New arrival?"  
  
"Yeah, that Yuy guy."  
  
"Ooh." She sat down on the stool nearby. "So is he cute?"  
  
"How the hell do I know?" she asked. "And I thought Duo was your boyfriend."  
  
"He is." She grinned. "But that doesn't mean I can't look. Besides, I know he's the only one for me."  
  
Relena snorted. "Cut it, Hil."  
  
Hilde smacked her forehead. "Oops," she said sarcastically. "I forgot. You don't have time for love."  
  
"That's not what I'm here for," Relena retorted. "I'm here to run Zechs's ship, and keep men quiet."  
  
"Jeez, Lena, I know you prefer not to be used as a dog's drool item, but it wouldn't hurt you to let a guy slap you with a towel once in a while, if you know what I mean." Hilde sighed. "Even Sarah makes out with Quatre."  
  
"Boy, did you make bad timing with that," the aforementioned woman said as she walked in. "I resent it, but yes, I do live, if that's what you mean."  
  
"You guys, I'm here for a Band-Aid, and then I'm out." She stuck up her finger. "Cut myself on a damn vegetable peeler."  
  
"You're helping out with dinner?" Hilde asked. "Why?"  
  
"Brownie's sick. I'm not about to let her go near the food. I can't have soldiers barfing all over the place."  
  
Quatre entered, smile in place. "Colonel, are you grumpier than usual today?"  
  
She sighed. "Yes, Quatre. Did you get the newbie settled?"  
  
"Yuy's fine." He raised an eyebrow. "He asked about you a bit."  
  
"Not a surprise," Sarah commented before kissing him. "Every new guy asks about Relena." She grinned. "Of course, it would be inconvenient to respond to it."  
  
"Precisely!" she exclaimed. "You can understand, then!"  
  
Sarah gawked, then giggled. "Relena, I was only kidding. You don't run on automatic, sweetie."  
  
Relena grunted. "Whatever. See you at the bar."  
  
Hilde whirled on Quatre. "So? Is this Yuy a looker?"  
  
Quatre winced. "To you, probably. Not to you, he's antisocial and off- limits."  
  
"Says who?" she asked. "Is he taken?"  
  
"A: You're DUO'S girlfriend." She frowned and hit him in the head. "And B:" He grinned. "He's perfect for Relena."  
  
"That so?" she asked in awe. "Is ANYBODY perfect for Relena?"  
  
"Twenty bucks he kisses her," Duo called, answering her question. "By the time Cinderella-on-ice has to make her exit."  
  
"You're on," Quatre agreed, and they shook hands. "Come on!" Kissing Sarah's cheek, he bound for the door.  
  
"What's the rush?" Duo asked, drawing away from Hilde's lips.  
  
Quatre grabbed his braid and pulled. "We have to get Trowa and Wufei to toss in their bet."

---

Heero Yuy did not consider himself a lucky man. Most of the time, he didn't even believe in luck. But this - if this wasn't luck, he didn't know what was.  
  
He was sitting in the lap of luxury and not even paying for it. Instead, people were paying him. As he ran his fingertips over the glossy surface of the cherry desk and dresser, he thought back to when he was younger. He hadn't lived this well since before his parents had died. It was almost funny. His parents had made their cash on the sea, too. Here he was, fifteen years later, doing the exact same thing.  
  
It felt odd... but reassuring. Like he could actually live up to his hopes, be someone. He was unsure, very much so. But he was ready to explore the possibilities. He needed to explore them.  
  
He propped himself up on his elbows and stared at the burning red digits of his clock. 7:30 p.m.- he'd spent most of this day in his room thinking about joining this ship as repairs were made in Panama's harbor. If he went down now he could probably get a sandwich and a beer and then come back up before they left that early morning.  
  
Deciding his course of action, he swung his legs down the side of his bed, stood, and crossed to the door.  
  
When opened, he saw the grinning face of Duo Maxwell, fist raised in a poise to knock.  
  
"Hey, Yuy!" he greeted. If he was going to win his bet with the opposition, namely Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei, he'd have to prop the newbie out of his what-am-I-doing-here phase and make him get on with Relena. "Just checkin' to make sure you were on your way down. Dinner's almost over and then it's party time!"  
  
Heero raised a brow before stepping and closing his bedroom door. "I'm coming for dinner," he said tersely. "But you can keep the party time."  
  
"Oh, hell no, Yuy!" The man was ridiculous. He firmly believed it. "That's not the way we work around here. You gotta come out to the bar, meet the chicks, specifically my girlfriend Hilde, who loves to meet the new people, and show us some moves. Everyone dances," he added. "I've heard stories about Wufei slinking Doctor Po around. Haven't seen it yet, unfortunately, but oh well."  
  
They'd begun to walk down the corridor and toward the dining area.  
  
"Leave me alone, Maxwell."  
  
"Hey, I know you haven't seen her yet, but Sally's hot! Wufei must have a thing for older women... You listening?"  
  
"No." Heero turned a corner and they came to a set of doors. He paused, and Duo wouldn't have the hesitation.  
  
"In we go," he said happily, and opened a door. He gave Heero a shove inside where chatting employees laughed and made noise and ate the nightly special.  
  
Duo called a young shorthaired woman over and her smile easily brightened the room.  
  
"Heero Yuy, meet Hilde Schbeiker. She's the prettiest nurse on this ship. She can fight in a submersible too, which helps when we're in a bind."  
  
"Oh, so you're the mysterious new recruit," Hilde said with a slight hint of cockiness to her tone, much like her boyfriend's. "Well, it's good to finally meet you."  
  
"Pleasure," Heero nodded.  
  
Hilde raised a dark brow. This quiet, distant was the man Quatre insisted was perfect for their Relena? She could understand the logic, and he was attractive, too, but the whole package seemed a bit over-wrapped. "Yeah," she affirmed, a little uncomfortable at his one-word reply. "Well, have a good night." She kissed Duo's cheek and went back to her conversation with a longhaired girl with oddly shaped eyebrows.  
  
Duo crossed his arms, unimpressed. "You suck," he commented. At this rate, how would his buddy score with Darlian? He couldn't even catch Hilde's eye. Not that he wanted her to, simply that... Oh man, he was gonna lose sixty dollars!  
  
"Hn," Heero replied. "You wanted me to be attracted, Maxwell?" His hard eyes flickered to the braided man's. "I've got no problem figuring it out. You've got your eye on some other girl, and now you want this Hilde out of your hair." His eyes went back to Hilde and her talking partner. "The tall one, maybe?"  
  
Duo's eyes bugged. "Dorothy?" He visibly paled. "I take back what I said before. Pal, you've been out in the sun too long. It's frying your brain. No one wants that chick."  
  
Heero only grunted again.  
  
Duo got Heero his sandwich just as eager young crew members began to push back tables for dancing space, open the bar, and adjust the lights so that a rainbow of colors streaked across the room. Everything looked festive.  
  
Except for Heero. Always them, never Heero.  
  
Of course, he was the newbie. Other people, normal people, could have been a member of the Golden Wave for only a week, but they had easily slipped into the action at night.  
  
Heero sat on a bar stool to the left of a couple making out and nursing a cup of brandy. It was obvious that he didn't belong here, among the people who did. He'd brought books with him, he could have gone back to his room and indulged with a new King novel.  
  
He couldn't entertain that thought for very much longer when Colonel Relena Darlian stepped into the dining-room-turned-dance-hall. She had changed her clothes and had gone from the tight green uniform he'd attempted to admire earlier to a black number that resembled Olivia Newton John's get-up at the end of "Grease."  
  
She was getting stares from both single and unavailable men as she made her way past the crowd, hips rocking smoothly in the black leather that clung to them. The same material stretched across ample breasts to come off-the-shoulder and ran down to three-fourths of her arms.  
  
Stunning, Heero couldn't help but admit. It was almost as though she was made to look nothing but irresistibly sexy. And when her journey across the floor ended on the bar stool next to his, he nearly bit his tongue.  
  
She ordered a strawberry daiquiri, slid the money along the counter in a sensual way that she probably didn't even know about, and then received the drink with a curt thank-you.  
  
He did bite his tongue when she turned to look at him.  
  
"What brings the newcomer to the bar tonight?" Relena raised an eyebrow, no tease detected in her tone. "You're not going to stay in your room and contemplate why the hell you're here, on this ship?"  
  
Heero took another gulp of beer. "I was invited," he said simply, "by Maxwell."  
  
"Oh. Well, he would be the one. If you'll excuse me," she stood, and even through the rainbow of lights scattered across her face, she was as prim and businesslike as usual, "I have to go change the shift with Captain Merquise." She stopped as a force caught her arm. Turning back, she cast a wary glance at her captor.  
  
The newbie shook his head. "Let the captain handle it."  
  
"Mr. Yuy," she began. "What nerve do you have to get in my way?"  
  
"My name is Heero, please, Colonel. And my nerves want a dance with you." He looked out toward the floor filled with young couples shakin' it unashamedly. "I've been told that a while ago you were quite the temptress."  
  
"Well, that was a very, very long while ago, Mr. Yuy, and-"  
  
"Heero."  
  
She fought to get over the irritation of being interrupted. "Heero. And no, I will not dance with you."  
  
"You forget, Colonel, I'm a Florida boy. If you're worried I'll embarrass you, don't. I won an award, thanks to required dance lessons at my stupid jock high school." He smirked lightly. "And if you fall thanks to rusty moves, I'll catch you, for sure."  
  
The competitiveness that she had forgotten she possessed sparked. "Rusty? Mr. Yuy, I can assure you that my moves are anything but rusty."  
  
"Well, you'd better get on it." He stood and began to pull her away from the floor. "Because I'm about to kick your butt."  
-------  
Review! 


	3. Mr Yuy, I'll admit that your skill is ad...

Notes: Well, it looks like I made good progress lately. First "Behind Darkness' Mask," then "Love Beyond All Fear." And then I did two parts of my Rurouni fic, "Now That You've Returned." RK fans, go check that out. I'm on a roll! And here's "Sea of Emotion."  
  
Animechick: God, it's about time. *grin*  
  
GG: Let thee hear, Borrowed Love is getting its latest chapter after this. Sorry, LBAF faithfuls!  
  
Disclaimer: If I said I owned Gundam Wing, I'd chain myself up and pull a Houdini. But I don't want to die, so NOPE! Don't own it. And I don't own Sarah Tanacky. I do not claim anything belonging to Kiki Tigerclaw.  
  
*~Sea Of Emotion~* Chapter Three  
  
From behind his bottle of Jack Daniels, Duo grinned. "This is interesting," he said.  
  
Hilde, Quatre, and Sarah looked in his direction. "What?" asked Quatre. His hair was slightly tousled, his lips were swollen; and he looked as though he'd never been in a lip-lock before, let alone with Sarah Tanacky.  
  
Duo smiled slyly. "Yuy made a move."  
  
"That wasn't a move," Hilde scoffed. She had secretly scrutinized the entire exchange between the newbie and the colonel. "That was like an I'm- better-than-you-and-I'll-prove-it thing."  
  
"Looks hot to me," Sarah said, straightening her blouse. She lifted a glass of water. "This is going to go low," she threatened.  
  
"Twenty," Quatre put it. "She'll kiss him."  
  
"Hell no, she won't. You're on."  
  
Two silent figures strode up.  
  
"Kiss," Wufei said. "If that woman has any sense, she'll at least peck him."  
  
"No kiss. Not that soft," Trowa challenged.  
  
The money was laid out and the stakes were high.  
  
***  
  
The middle of a swing song blared into Heero's ears from the giant speakers up front. The beat was relatively fast, something he could make do with. He'd always been better with slow songs - three-quarter time, preferably.  
  
When she swung everything above her waist around in a full circle, long sun- dipped hair waving past his face, he went into battle mode.  
  
Like hell he was going to lose to this feisty, rank-carrying temptress.  
  
With moves he had perfected in Florida, he gripped her waist and spun her around him, catching her hand behind his back to do it twice more. Relena raised an eyebrow, side-stepped around him, and kicked a leg up in the air to let it hook around his neck.  
  
Familiar with the move, Heero held her behind her knees and lifted her above his head until she somersaulted above him and landed on her feet, back-to-back with him.  
  
Relena allowed a small smirk to dominate her face and her eyes softened before he seized her wrists and whipped her around in a complicated series of turns she barely remembered.  
  
It wasn't until he began tossing her behind his back that she realized defeat was confirmed.  
  
The dance ended, molding into a slower, floating song made for lovers.  
  
"Mr. Yuy, I must admit that your skill is admirable."  
  
Still that regal tone. Heero fought the urge to sigh. "Well, I'll admit you're not as rusty as I imagined." He took note of the romantic tune. "Care to try your hand at another?"  
  
"I believe your nerves only wanted a dance. Singular," she said, her jaw firming and a hardness returning to her eyes. "I best go make my excuses to my brother."  
  
Though the way her lips moved as she spoke entranced him, Heero stayed put as she walked - God, as she superiorly sauntered - away. He had no wish to be shot.  
  
Running a hand through his wild mane of chocolate hair, he let the long- held sigh escape. "Damn," he muttered.  
  
His last thought before grabbing another beer and leaving the bar was that he wished the song had been a tango.  
  
***  
  
"Have fun dancing?"  
  
With a withering look at the captain, Relena shrugged. "News spreads faster than I thought."  
  
"Or it could be that I happened to be watching the surveillance cameras."  
  
Fuck, she thought.  
  
"I didn't think you still knew how to do that. Those steps," Zechs said.  
  
She shrugged again, this time out of frustration. "I made it a bet. A challenge," she corrected. "We didn't go for money. He doesn't have much anyway."  
  
"Did you win?" he asked, amused.  
  
A low growl erupted from her throat. "He circled me around his damned waist."  
  
Zechs grinned. "Smooth. So then, Relena, when do I need to book your vacation for the wedding?"  
  
The colonel nearly made him shiver with the glare as she sat down at the surveillance desk. "I assure you, nothing like that will occur. Not ever. Certainly not with Yuy."  
  
"I saw you relax."  
  
"You can't very well do a jazz square with taught legs."  
  
"Relena." Zechs rested a hand on one of hers. "Please don't hide yourself from me."  
  
"What is there to hide?" she demanded. "I was defeated by a newbie in a dance. There's nothing big about it."  
  
"That you were defeated in anything is big," he objected. "I won't push anything, since it seems to upset you."  
  
"I'm not upset."  
  
"But why don't you consider looking into this Heero Yuy? If you check his back round, you'll feel a lot better about him. I'm heading in for an early night of paperwork. Good night, Colonel."  
  
Relena shoved away from her desk as soon as he'd left and left the office, stepping out into a room made entirely of glass. Behind it was a world of blues and greens and blacks. But mostly blue. A swirling, churning deepened sapphire begging to be explored.  
  
Like Heero Yuy's eyes.  
  
Where had that come from?  
  
In the distance, a killer whale swam with two of its young. The view on the surveillance deck was excellent. The captain, she knew, shared her sentiments of the sea. Brushing imagined dirt from her tight shirt, she left the deck and prepared for a night drinking coffee and watching cameras.  
  
***  
  
The first thing Duo did when he barged into Heero's room was dodge the book that came flying at his head. "Wow, you don't make friends easily, do ya?"  
  
"Get out, Maxwell, or any weapon you aim at me won't stop me from killing you."  
  
"You're just pissed off because she rejected you." He paused. "Well, at least she didn't, like, reprimand you in front of the crew or something. I mean, you did touch her in several areas not even a practiced groper would get to feel up."  
  
A muscle in Heero's jaw twitched. "Leave."  
  
"Okay, okay. One word of advice, and I'm only giving you this because I'm forty dollars richer: Colonel Darlian is in love with the sea. If it had oxygen used by humans, she would breathe it. If you do plan to ask her out and she, by some miracle, agrees, I would suggest that you keep it somewhere on the ship.or you know, be creative, find an island or whatever and row out there. I don't know." Duo shrugged, drank from the beer in his hand. "Well, yeah. Congrats on beating her on the swing dance. That was impressive, no one guessed you'd be the type who did that. Her either, wow. Now that I've gabbed, g'night, Heero man!"  
  
"Duo."  
  
He stopped, hand on the doorknob. "Yeah?"  
  
Heero looked at him with inquisitive blue eyes the color of Relena's ocean. "How'd you get forty dollars?"  
  
"Oh, uh, that. . . Well, you see. . ." Duo laughed nervously. "Quatre and Wufei put entirely too much faith in the Colonel and, well, Trowa and I don't, so. . . We kinda betted that you'd get kissed tonight, and you didn't, and we both got money. Well, cheers!"  
  
And Maxwell slammed the door behind him.  
  
Heero glared at that door for a long time. By the time, he finally got to sleep, he had the image of that flash of lace he'd glimpsed at when Colonel Darlian's shirt had fallen a bit low stuck in his mind.  
  
And he dreamt of her.  
  
************************************  
  
Gundam Girl: Dang, that was a bit short for even my taste. But at least I got it out!  
  
Animechick: Feh. "Now That You've Returned" needs an update.  
  
GG: But it's not its turn yet. . .  
  
AC: *grumbles and storms away*  
  
GG: Well, yes. She's going to review now. You guys please review as well! 


	4. Miss Darlian and her brother are unfortu...

Gundam Girl: Yay, chapter four! This fic is so much fun. . . I just got back from seeing "Pirates of the Caribbean" for the second time, and I wanna go again! (I will too, as I've seen it with my sister twice now and I need to go with my friends.) I've been inspired for Raonaid's pirate challenge and I figure that will come next. Yargh! (The Caribbean will also be mention in this chapter, go figure.)  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or its characters. If you come after me, I'll send my demon monkey named "Jack" after you!  
  
*~Sea of Emotion~* Chapter Four  
  
Barbados. He really did love the Caribbean. Though it wasn't as good as the water that held it.  
  
He'd found her there, in Barbados, and an excellent worker she was. Also, handily, she was an impressive bedmate if Anne had upset him and he needed the warmth of flesh.  
  
But Treize had found that no blue in Luchrezia's eyes could compare to that possessing shade of the ocean depths. It was a strength, it was a birthplace, and it, he knew, would be his own grave. Fortunately, he also knew that the day it became such was quite far from the current date.  
  
He scrawled his signature on the three checks in front of him, then turned to the aforementioned warm-fleshed woman behind him. "Take this to our suppliers, Ms. Noin. One for repairs, one for food, and one for beverages. . .mainly rum, I believe. You will see that they are all correctly labeled."  
  
"Yes, sir," Noin answered obediently. Treize smiled; she could nod her head in duty twenty-four hours a day, but no amount of service to him would ever soften the hatred in those cerulean orbs beneath her brows. And after all he had done for her, he thought with amusement. Yet it was true that she had a right to despise him; he had saved her life. And she had to repay that debt – whether she had wanted to die or not.  
  
Noin strode from his office, hips swaying with unconscious desirability. And, as he had expected, Anne took her place. When her sharp voice shot from her mouth and embedded in his heart, his smile widened. She was extremely tempting when she was irritated.  
  
"You are spending more and more money on rum, Treize," she told him sternly. "And you are underestimated the ships we ravage these days; the Rosetta can't take the damage it could five years ago. And you refuse to replace this vessel."  
  
"I certainly do." He rose from his desk to walk to her and set his hands on her shoulders. "It was this ship on which I married you. . . It was this ship on which we made love for the first time. Would you so hurriedly have me be rid of it, Anne?"  
  
But the woman who had taken the name "Khushrenada" in replacement of "Une" did not soften as once she did upon such doting from her husband. "I would have you rid us of it before we are killed, Treize."  
  
Treize withdrew from her and retreated to his desk again. More every day he lost the woman he had wed. More every day she lost herself to the coldhearted colonel of the Rosetta rather than the warm-blooded Anne Khushrenada. She was, after all, the reason he spent so much on alcohol. How many times had he wallowed in his bottle, swallowing rum and miserable thoughts of her? How many times had he gone to Noin's bed for answers that were not there? Surely, only Noin herself knew.  
  
"We will go below once Noin has returned. I have already decided our next target. Please prep the crew, dear," Treize requested quietly.  
  
Anne inclined her head a bit in acknowledgement. "Yes, sir."  
  
Once she had left, Treize let his forehead fall into his palm, propped by the elbow on the surface of his desk. With a tight frown, he brushed wheat- colored locks from his eyes and opened a drawer to his right. Taking out the bottle of amber-brown alcohol, he popped the cork.  
  
***  
  
Noin walked the streets of Barbados, passing people of both black and white skin. They looked so happy, she thought errantly. Her own tanned skin was covered with bruises unseen by the casual observer. She was scarred in places most were not touched roughly.  
  
Captain Treize had orders these checks to be hand-delivered to the shady dealers he kept business with; the infamous "scientists" known publicly as only "G," "O," and "S."  
  
She never really enjoyed her time with those wizened, wise men obsessed with money, however brief it was. They had known her as a child, she remembered them as professors at the high school she had gladly dropped out of when she was seventeen. Yet if she completed her task well, and managed to work positive comments from the elder suppliers, Treize would usually not bother her the night following.  
  
However, she thought was a grimace, she had seen Colonel Une (which the crew was to call her) enter Captain Treize's office as she had been exiting it, and she feared that tonight he might not be so grateful.  
  
Noin sped her pace. If she hurried the errand, perhaps she could get some time to stroll the Barbados streets for self-pleasure before the captain expected her to return – she hardly received pleasure for herself these days.  
  
***  
  
Captain Merquise entered the surveillance room whistling. He spotted his first mate before she saw him.  
  
"Your coffee mug should be going cold, Relena."  
  
Relena turned her head. Once again, she had been watching the ocean. Only three hours ago, she had witnessed the breathtaking change in the water's shade as the time confirmed the sun's rising. She had not seen a sunrise or a sunset in four years; it didn't bother her. She was content with seeing the underworld that did not miss the yellow orb that mattered nothing more to her than its duty in determining the sea's temperature.  
  
"Coffee never really mattered when it comes to my energy, sir," she told him. "It just puts flavor in my mouth."  
  
Zechs smiled. "A flavor I'm sure Mr. Yuy would enjoy a taste of."  
  
Her eyes sharpened; she had almost succeeded in forgetting Heero Yuy for more than five minutes. "I beseech you to not mention him in such an undermining way again, captain."  
  
He raised an eyebrow. "Undermining to you or to him, Colonel?"  
  
Relena looked at her watch. "My shift is complete. Good morning, sir." She swept past him.  
  
Her single superior's smile faded once she had gone from the room.  
  
"Is anything good anymore, Relena?" he wondered in the silence around him.  
  
The silence did not answer.  
  
***  
  
Heero trudged to the infirmary at a quarter before eleven that morning. When he found Quatre there, he held out his arm.  
  
Quatre's eyebrows arched when he saw the shallow, but long gash atop Heero's forearm. "And how did this happen? We've had no battle with you on board for you to heroically harm yourself in yet."  
  
Yuy's eyebrow's narrowed. "Broken bottle," he said tersely.  
  
The medic smiled; several stories could accompany those two words, but his explanation was reason enough for him to take down some cleaning alcohol and a roll of bandages.  
  
Heero was not proud of this injury. He had not thought to discard his empty beer bottle from the night before in the nailed-down wastebasket in his room. He had merely left it sitting on his nightstand, and as a result of a particularly severe teeter of the ship, the bottle had rolled off the stand, shattered on one of his bedposts, and a long piece had scraped his arm.  
  
No, he was not at all proud, but he wasn't stupid enough to not let it be treated. And whereas he could easily tend to it himself, Quatre looked the type to insist upon being allowed to do his job the way he was paid to do it.  
  
"I won't press this matter," Quatre told him as he swiped at his arm with a cloth soaked in alcohol.  
  
Heero grunted his thanks.  
  
Winner smiled. "But I would like to ask you about Colonel Darlian. I lost twenty dollars last night as a result of your dance."  
  
"So I've heard." Heero couldn't resist a small smirk. "You aren't the only one who wishes she had kissed me."  
  
"You know, Heero, I don't know what you hope to gain from the colonel. I've known her for a long time, and her interest in the opposite sex has never furthered from her brother's well being. Sorry," the medic said when he wrapped the bandage tightly enough to cause pain, though Heero hadn't flinched.  
  
"Everyone keeps mentioning her brother," Heero murmured. "But Duo said she rarely leaves the ship."  
  
"Yes, yes, the Golden Wave is her home."  
  
"But if she cares so much for her brother, why wouldn't she take a vacation to go see him? Wouldn't she bother to make a visit?"  
  
Quatre paused and for a moment, he stared into space. "Miss Darlian and her brother are unfortunately too far from each other," he told Heero dazedly. "She probably sees it as a waste to forget her responsibilities long enough to make time for him."  
  
"But she cares—"  
  
"Oh yes, she cares greatly. But it's. . .difficult." He finished tying the bandage. "You're good to go, Heero. You might want to find Wufei. He was instructed to show you to your position."  
  
***  
  
Wufei was found in some kind of gym Heero hadn't been aware the ship held, lifting at least an eighty-pound barbell above his head.  
  
"Trying to impress someone?" Heero asked from his place in the door.  
  
Wufei paused, shirtless chest glistening with sweat, to regard him for a moment before continuing his exercise. "What is it you want, Yuy?"  
  
Heero stepped. "Quatre asked me to go and look you up."  
  
"Hm, five till twelve. All right." Chang hung the barbell on a rack. "I'll be right out." He disappeared inside what Heero guessed was a shower room before returning not three minutes later, clean and in uniform.  
  
"This way, Yuy. I've been told you have a very important assignment."  
  
This pleased him; second day there and he was considered highly useful.  
  
He followed Wufei to the main deck, which he hadn't seen until now. There were people scurrying about, not panicked, but purposefully walking. Two men in suspended chairs read from codes waiting to be decoded; a panel of consoles and radars covered one two walls in the large room. Officers walked across the room on an overhanging bridge. One wall was made entirely of a screen which was obviously used for face-to-face communication. Captain Merquise sat in the middle of it all, seated in a large chair. He would be working in here?  
  
Wufei left his side for a moment to speak with an officer Heero learned was called Otto. They talked briefly, though Heero could hear them over the bustle.  
  
"Right then," Wufei said upon returning. "Through here, Yuy." He trooped Heero across the deck. Heero thought he caught Zechs smiling in amusement.  
  
They came to a wide door. Heero supposed it might have been his office. Wufei twisted the knob and opened the door.  
  
Heero's anxious look fell. Stacked on shelves were buckets and sponges and bottles of polish. Leaning against the side were several brooms and mops.  
  
Wufei took down a bucket and seized a mop, shoving both into his hands. With a bit of an amused smirk, he gave the order:  
  
"There you are, Yuy. Until four-hundred hours, you are to scrub and polish whatever seems fit to be cleaned. There's a sink right down that way there."  
  
Heero glared at the mop then met Wufei's eyes defiantly. Through gritted teeth, he managed once having recovered from his surprise, "Mission accepted."  
  
"Good. I'll be inspecting your work later this evening. Good day, Mr. Yuy."  
  
And Wufei stalked off without a care in the world.  
  
Heero waited until he was gone. Once he had rounded into another hall, he slammed the bucket on the floor.  
  
***  
  
"Noin, thank you. Ah, excellent." Treize gladly took the three envelopes from her. "They said?"  
  
"All three send their regards, Captain," she said with a salute.  
  
"Wonderful, terrific." With a pleased smile, he said, "I have one more request for you before we sink, and then you have the rest of the day off, Ms. Noin."  
  
Noin took note that he had not said "evening" but only "day." "Yes, sir?"  
  
Treize corked his bottle and put it back in the drawer. He was only a little loose so far today. "I want you to set a course for the Atlantic."  
  
"The Atlantic, sir?"  
  
"Yes. I wish to rendezvous with the Golden Wave."  
  
************************************************************************  
  
Gundam Girl: Chapter four, wheeee!  
  
Animechick: Yay!  
  
Maxine: Party!  
  
Kiki Tigerclaw: *wakes up* What?  
  
GG: Thanks for reading, guys. I have introduced Treize, Une, and Noin. Tell me what you think of Heero with a mop. . .which means you have to review please!!! 


	5. We know he's got more skill than mopping

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. Simple.  
  
*~Sea of Emotion~* Chapter Five  
  
Relena paused in her passage to the surveillance room (wondering why Zechs had never assigned any of the crew to the job) when she heard the loud clatter of metal on tile.  
  
She rounded a hallway corner to find Heero Yuy, mop in hand, bucket on the floor in front of him while he glared at both items as though they were possessed by forced of evil. She smirked.  
  
He really was cute.  
  
She almost gasped aloud. That thought alone sent her tumbling back to a manner of severity, and she frowned at the rookie. "We try to keep an undisturbed atmosphere on this ship, Mr. Yuy."  
  
Heero's eyes met hers, and they orbs of blue widened for a fraction of a second before he straightened, snapped boot to boot, and made a rigid salute.  
  
The broom fell as well.  
  
"At ease." Relena, though she was a little amused at the awkward clumsiness of a man who looked so professional, gave him a bored look. "Just how did you manage to obtain a place on this ship, Mr. Yuy?"  
  
"God knows," Heero muttered, relaxing a tad. "I was trained for sea battle, Colonel."  
  
"Surely the use of a mop is not so much harder?" she questioned. "You were the assistant of a pawn broker, Mr. Yuy. Surely you've cleaned floors in your time."  
  
Heero bent over to retrieve his chore instruments. Relena, annoyingly enough, found herself appreciating the lean contours of his body, and quickly gave herself a mental reprimand.  
  
"I don't do windows," he told her bluntly.  
  
Relena's eyebrow rose. "Fortunately, we have few."  
  
Heero nodded, a sign of respect, however grudgingly.  
  
"Mr. Yuy," Colonel Darlian said, "you are not fond of me, are you?"  
  
Heero stared at the wall behind her rather than her eyes. "I have very little doubt that such a thing matters to you, Colonel."  
  
"That's true. But whether I am liked or not, Yuy, I put the captain's crew in a place where they should be. Samson!" she called to a passing officer. "Put Mr. Othio on floor duty this afternoon. Mr. Yuy will be given a change of position." She turned back to the rookie. "Follow me, Yuy."  
  
Heero did as she bid, and was close behind as she led him through a series of wide corridors. They went straight through the main deck and all of its ever-present chaos.  
  
She took him into the same room he had met Captain Merquise in. The large window's view was the most breathtaking underwater. The hues of the sea threatened to drag a slip of sentimentality from him. Heero couldn't keep his mouth shut, proving that only the ocean could open him up like this.  
  
"It's great outside."  
  
Colonel Darlian's eyes flicked to the window, and for a moment, she smiled. "Yes, it is. The water is truly magnificent. You should see it at sunset, it. . ." She trailed, and her smile fell. The rigidity returned to her countenance, and Heero nearly winced. Was it really so difficult for her to act like she was happy?  
  
"Over here," she beckoned, gesturing to a panel of machines. Several screens displayed separate areas of the Golden Wave, such as the bridge, the corridors, even the outside surveillance decks that were glassed-in. "I understand you haven't had the chance to completely familiarize yourself with the ship yet," Relena told him, "however, I believe that you will be all right here to start with the crew."  
  
Heero nodded once. It wasn't the front line, but it was better than mopping.  
  
"Still, you will have to clean a few floors, Yuy. I can't have the crew saying I play favorites. Do you understand?" she asked sternly.  
  
He saluted. "Ma'am," he agreed. "Whatever your order."  
  
"Yes. Will you need anything?" she asked without any amount of neither politeness nor rudeness. "I can send someone to get you a drink. It sometimes takes an extra boost to make it through the day just sitting here."  
  
"I'm fine for now," Heero replied, lowering his body into the chair before the screens.  
  
Relena said nothing more, and simply headed for the door.  
  
"Colonel," he called before he realized it was his voice that spoke.  
  
She turned, giving him a patient look - as patient as she could, anyway. "Mr. Yuy?"  
  
Heero stammered for a moment; he really had no idea what the hell he had intended to say. "Is the view that good at sunset?" he asked finally.  
  
She raised an eyebrow at him. "You'll be here at sunset, Yuy. Wait and see."  
  
Heero withdrew his gaze, lowering it. Hers was just too intense. A fist balled in his lap. Had he actually been expecting tenderness in her icy tone?  
  
"I've no words to describe it's beauty," her voice said.  
  
Heero's head shot up to look at her.  
  
But she was gone.  
  
***  
  
Noin had the morning off, and for good reason. She hadn't gotten any sleep. Treize thrived on alcohol and adrenaline, and with those two drivers, he had stayed up all night, expecting her to entertain him. And entertain him she did.  
  
Noin turned her face up into the shower, reveling in its warmth and the illusion that she was washing the captain away.  
  
But it was Treize who got all of the enjoyment; never her.  
  
She stepped out of her personal bathroom, drying herself with the extravagant towel she had as a privileged officer and slipped into her own bed, foregoing drying her hair. She would hate herself for it later, when her short dark cap decided to stubbornly be insubordinate, but for now she could only think about the sleep she desperately needed.  
  
But she couldn't fall asleep. Not while her thighs hurt from his terrible, bruising desperation. That was all Treize cared about, himself. He never paid her needs any mind.  
  
But she didn't honestly care. If she were ever to enjoy the act of sex, it would not be with Captain Khushrenada. More and more frequently now, she spent her nights in a rum-soaked bed with an often-drunk captain bent on his own release and detachment from the world he hated.  
  
She hated this world too. Yet even now, she was being watched, probably by some female he had hired as a guard for her - or an understudy, just in case. Overall, killing herself was out of the question. Her life was Treize's, disgustingly, and inevitably. It was he who would decide when she died, and it was he who would decide how she lived.  
  
If only she had died, as she had planned. If only he had let her bleed to death and drown. She had sailed out of Italy for a reason; to escape her father, and the man he had intended her to marry for a highly profitable amount.  
  
Tsubarov was a Russian through and through, but a hard one at that. More than twice her age, he was a millionaire from St. Petersburg, and had been looking for a young, obedient wife to show off to society. The female officer had been repulsed to learn that she, Luchrezia, daughter of Marcio Noin, had been picked from an advised group of young women.  
  
She had fled. Having no family but her father to speak of since her mother had died seventeen years earlier, she had bought a small sailing boat with intent to go out to sea and stab herself right before throwing herself into the water.  
  
She had instead slit her wrists in hopes that the pain from the saltwater would remind her that she had lived for a little while.  
  
She had never gotten to the water before passing out. When she awoke, she had found herself onboard the Rosetta, wrists bandaged by the care of Anne Khushrenada, and her husband the captain, Treize.  
  
Her angel, Anne had said with a voice covered in ice.  
  
Angel indeed, she thought. This had been about ten months ago, now. Her loathe for Trieze had been lit as soon as she had found herself on his miserable ship, and had only flared over the months as soon as he had demanding she take him to bed.  
  
She fought the first few times, scratching and biting and nearly telling Anne. But Anne was usually locked up in her room, separated from Treize, while she pored over maps and statistics for the ship. She came to realize that Mrs. Khushrenada would not give a damn if her husband raped her.  
  
And then, she had merely given up. When Treize stopped by to spend the nights with her, she felt nothing, and pretended the world did not exist, that she did not exist.  
  
She would prefer it that way, but Treize would never allow it.  
  
So Noin rolled on her side, and did her best to sleep. For tonight, they would meet up with the Golden Wave, the ship of Zechs Merquise himself. And they would have to be careful.  
  
Merquise would like nothing more than to cash in the Rosetta, its crew - and her.  
  
***  
  
"Where did you take Yuy?" Zechs muttered lightly from his position on the platform in the center of the main deck. Relena had come to stand at his side. "I saw you two crossing the bridge."  
  
Relena straightened her shoulders. His tone was insinuative enough to nearly be insulting. "He will be on security duty now with us."  
  
"You gave him a privilege?" Captain Merquise asked. "Why?"  
  
"Don't read too much into it, Captain." Relena scowled as one of the lower- ranking officers ran across the bridge. "Jensen! No running, there's too much work going on here!" She met Zech's eye. "We know he's got more skill than mopping."  
  
"We haven't seen him yet, Colonel Darlian," Zechs reminded her. "Don't get your hopes up."  
  
She shrugged. "He's Akira and Kanna Yuy's son. Surely that counts for something."  
  
"Surely," Zechs agreed. "But still. . ."  
  
"Captain, Colonel!" one of the suspended commanders above them called down. "There's a bounty ship headed for us from behind! Only three hundred meters!"  
  
"You're joking," Zechs stated coldly, rising from his chair. "Who is it? Never mind," he said immediately. "I already know."  
  
"There's only one bounty ship with such great cloaking devices," Relena added.  
  
"The Rosetta is worth a lot." Zechs grinned at her. "Let's hunt down Khushrenada."  
  
"Before he hunts us," the colonel agreed.  
  
Zechs grabbed the nearest microphone and clicked into all channels. "All free hands to deck," he commanded powerfully. "The Rosetta is right behind us."  
  
Some cheered. Some grumbled, too tired to handle a bounty today. Relena only took a calming breath.  
  
"Treize Khushrenada," she said gently to Zechs. "Should we? Are we prepared?"  
  
Zechs turned and set a hand on her arm. "I won't let him see you," he promised.  
  
Relena shook her head. "I only met him once, sir. One meeting does not alter my life." She smiled slightly. "Let's make some millions."  
  
As she walked away, Zechs stepped into the nearest elevator. There would be infiltration, and he knew where at.  
  
With a strong hand, he grabbed a loaded pistol from an arsenal case.  
  
And he would be ready.  
  
Down in the bowels of the ship, where the boiler rooms and their crewman were, there was an oxygen filled hatch that people boarded from outside. Ones simply suited in scuba gear could get inside easily. This wasn't a threat, mainly because the crew knew of the weak spot, and were always prepared for it.  
  
Zechs was waiting beside the door, ready at any moment for the first entry. It wouldn't be Khushrenada, of course, but pawns could talk as easily as the Rosetta's captain.  
  
The door opened before he had been waiting half an hour. He would have gotten there in the smallest, most undetectable submersible imaginable; that was how bounties worked, trying to slip in unnoticed.  
  
He caught Treize's tool by the throat the second he stepped inside and had shut the door without seeing him. Throwing him against the wall, Zechs ripped off his mask.  
  
'He' was a she. A woman.  
  
The mask slipped from Zech's grip.  
  
A dark-haired, blue-eyed, very frightened, very beautiful. . .woman.  
  
Relena had said that life was not altered by one meeting. He had agreed.  
  
Now, he wasn't so sure.  
  
********************************************************************  
  
Thanks for reading! Please review!  
  
-GG 


	6. What's a mystery to me is that I can't r...

GG: Thanks for waiting, guys. This chapter got written pretty quickly, and the story is progressing quite nicely in my opinion, but I want to know what YOU think, so review please!  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own it. There, I said it. Will you producer people unchain me now?  
  
Sea of Emotion Chapter Six  
  
Trowa lifted an elegant eyebrow at the monitor he was keeping track of. "Report," he said, just loud enough to be heard above the din of ambitious bounty hunters. "Colonel, the Rosetta is retreating."  
  
Relena glowered. "Why would they do that? Treize hasn't done anything yet."  
  
From a suspended gun controller seat fifteen feet above them, Duo shouted, "It's probably a trap!"  
  
"Possibly," acknowledged the colonel. "It's not over their normal standards. But Treize prefers direct approaches as well. Why the hell would—"  
  
"Colonel Darlian," Zechs' voice rang over the intercom, "this is Captain Merquise, calling the bridge. I'm down in the hanger with a Rosetta intruder at gunpoint. She is connected to Khushrenada through a coded device."  
  
"That explains that," muttered Wufei from his place beside Trowa. "And it's a woman."  
  
"Not now, Chang," warned Relena as she reached for the intercom beside the captain's chair. "Colonel Darlian here, and we read you, sir. We are locking all hangar entrances." She motioned to Wufei who immediately complied and a series of metallic clicks echoed through the ship. "You have clearance to return to bridge for a report."  
  
As Relena shut off the connection, Heero couldn't help but admire her ever present focus and complete dedication to her duties. True, that could have indicated a well-bred love of money, but the way she had looked at the sea told him otherwise. Her very soul seemed to be in the water, so much like his.  
  
"I want the crew on standby," she called out, "but return to your previous work. Further orders are on hold."  
  
As Heero turned to go back to security, Duo grabbed the pole provided for the suspended gunners and slid down it to his side. "Slow the pace, Yuy, the cameras record. Let's stay and see the Rosetta chick."  
  
He wanted to but hardened his work ethic. "Colonel—"  
  
"She won't mind. She likes it when there's newbies. Newbies can be converted. Like me." Duo scratched his ear even as Heero blinked. "Three years ago – that was it, wasn't it? Yeah – I was with the Black Scavengers."  
  
"The illegal group?" asked Heero, surprised. Scavenging was a free business for the most part, but there was the Black unit that sold to the bounties themselves rather than their hunters.  
  
"Yep. Damn good money we all made. 'Cept one time, when the ship Iris sunk from a gas leak, the Golden Wave went out to catch the little robbers. We decided to snag the parts that Zechs mighta decided to keep. It was a race. We have the sweetest stealth cloaks of all time, and I was actually able to sneak on here from below. I was supposed to stall the engine." Duo paused, lost in the memory.  
  
Heero urged in a monotone, "What happened?"  
  
Duo grinned and shrugged his left shoulder. "Hilde spied me out and the Blacks stranded my ass. But I nearly shot Merquise and I had a known reputation even back then so instead of tossing me in jail, he and Colonel Darlian had me on as their favorite firer."  
  
"I see," Heero said, baffled by the odd story.  
  
"Yeah, we have a fucked-up world. But you know something? The pay here is twice as much as the shit the Scavengers gave me. Cheap bastards." He grinned.  
  
Just as Heero turned to again try to get back to the cameras, Zechs walked in, tugging a dripping woman behind him.  
  
"Ah," Relena said. "The sea mole." She smiled coldly.  
  
Noin tried to yank herself away, but Zechs' grip proved impenetrable. "I would have if this impossible idiot had come three seconds later."  
  
"As much as your compliment warms me," growled Zechs, "I have to ask you to shut up."  
  
Relena's eyebrows arched. Despite the professionalism and annoyance in the captain's voice, she had unmistakably heard some tenderness as well.  
  
"What do you think, Colonel?" asked Zechs. "Do you see her as worthy?"  
  
"She's fit," acknowledged Relena. "However, she looks troubled."  
  
"Yes, well, I've just been captured," Noin huffed.  
  
"Yes. And you've been harshly treated on the Rosetta."  
  
Noin growled deep in her throat, a sound much like Zechs'. "You know none of it." Her hair fell wetly into her face.  
  
Relena stepped forward and in the bead silence of the bridge, grabbed the zipper of the captive's wetsuit. Before she could struggle, the colonel pulled the zipper down just enough to reveal an enormous purple bruise on the woman's left shoulder. There were some coughs and more than a few gasps.  
  
"I believe I know enough," murmured Relena, her expression shrewd.  
  
Humiliated, Noin wrenched away from Relena, half-stumbling into Zechs' chest. The Golden Wave's captain steadied her with a hand on her forearm; he didn't miss the way her teeth ground together as her shoulder was jarred, and he winced. He'd have handled her gentler if he'd known about the injury. "Won't you just put me in prison?" she begged. "Or kill me?"  
  
"God," breathed Duo. "What did Khushrenada do to you?" Noin pressed her lips together. The sympathy was almost too much to bear.  
  
"We won't kill you," said Zechs. "Nor will we put you in jail. That isn't the way we work with those we deem useful."  
  
Noin paled. "If you—"  
  
"What's your name?" he asked hurriedly, disconcerted with her initial suspicion. The impulse to soothe her was a bit frightening as well.  
  
She didn't know why she told him. It would have been more satisfying, she was sure, to force them to take the trouble of digging through their numerous records. But the words tumbled from her mouth before she could think about it. "Luchrezia Noin."  
  
"Luchrezia Noin," he repeated. He released her and watched as she immediately tugged her wetsuit in place again. "Well, then. Welcome aboard the Golden Wave...Officer Noin."  
  
The look she gave him when her head snapped up was enough to startle Zechs and half the crew. Intensity flooded her nearly black blue eyes. "Are you asking me to join you?" she demanded.  
  
"No, actually. I'm telling you." Zechs eyes softened. "It's that or face the court. And since you were part of the Rosetta, your sentence won't be nearly as easy as the one I'm offering you."  
  
Her pride, her remaining shred of control, insisted that she defy him and throw his offers back in his face. Her papa, now buried in Italian soil, had taught her that with a kind heart and a firm hand. "I'll bet you've gained half your crew this way."  
  
At that came jovial chuckles, the loudest of them from Duo.  
  
Zechs held out a hand to her. "I want to give you the option of becoming a better person. Just so, you hold the choice."  
  
The eyes Noin stared at him with were not naïve and not by any means trustful. But, Heero could tell just by looking at her, she believed Captain Merquise. And although she did not take Zechs' hand and instead lifted her own into a salute, he could see the fierce self-determination burning inside of her.  
  
Noin's voice was crisp and ready as she replied.  
  
"I await your first orders, Captain."  
  
"Goddamn." Duo cackled as he and Heero walked toward the men's dorm hall together after dinner that evening. "Today's been eventful, huh? I've seen recruit shows before, but none of them were that well-played. Merquise has got a fireball on his hands now."  
  
"Seems that way," muttered Heero, staring at the tiles below his moving feet.  
  
"Jeez, Yuy, does nothing entertain you? I can hook you up with a freaking Dickens novel if you'll at least enjoy yourself." Duo crossed his arms.  
  
"I didn't join this ship to enjoy the work," Heero said. "I like it well enough, but I'm not here for fun."  
  
Duo stopped. "Then for Pete's sake, tell me why you're here. No one up and leaves what they've had their whole life unless they have a motive. So come on, Heero, spill. What made you ditch Panama for a crew of bounty hunters?"  
  
Heero actually considered telling him. Duo was a loudmouth, but a trustworthy one that could be sworn to silence if necessary. At least that was what Yuy could gather. Besides, Maxwell had shared his story...  
  
"My parents were bounty hunters," he began. "I remember that they didn't just love the ocean. It was like a part of them; they hated being on land, but apparently they had decided that for the first few years of my life, they'd stay there. But they chose Florida, Panama City, so that they could be as close to the sea as possible. We'd go out rowing or in a motorboat several times a week."  
  
Duo smiled. "Sounds like you're pretty close."  
  
"They're dead," Heero said flatly, and Duo winced. "When I was three, they had their fifth wedding anniversary and wanted to celebrate. They chose an evening alone together, and left me with their friend, J. They decided to rent a yacht and go dancing out in the sea for a few hours, even though...well, even though there was a storm scheduled," he relayed lightly, but his voice wasn't weak. Heero watched as some awareness of idiocy flashed in Duo's eyes, but he brushed it aside. He wasn't insulted.  
  
"It came earlier than predicted," he continued. "A big, rushing thing, I've heard. Lightning and thunder, rain coming down in drops as big as my thumb. And the wind..." God, even Heero could remember that night; not what he was going or if he was afraid. He could still hear those foreboding gusts whooshing against the side of J's pawn shop. "Their yacht didn't stand a chance – neither did they," he finished. "J raised me, and I worked for him until you and Quatre came to Panama."  
  
Duo sighed and scratched his head. "That's a tough story, Heero. I know; mine's no better. But that's for another night." With a yawn exaggerated to ease what awkwardness lingered from the tale, he grinned and abruptly changed directions, heading toward Hilde's hall. "Have a good night."  
  
Heero didn't reply and swiveled on his heel in hopes of making it to his room before someone could run into him.  
  
He realized he was out of luck when Relena rounded the corner on her way to the security room.  
  
"Officer Yu—Heero," she corrected herself. "It's a little late, isn't it?"  
  
"I was just turning in," Heero told her, saluting. He wanted to clear his throat to toss the dryness from it. She looked a little worn from the day but she was just as lovely. "Is there something I can do before I go?"  
  
"No," she answered bluntly. "We've all pretty much finished for the day. But I'll tell you what everyone else is hearing; mind Officer Noin. She's in a very vulnerable state right now. Part of her still considers herself a prisoner."  
  
"You seem very good with emotions," Heero said before he had time to consider his words.  
  
Relena tilted her head, studied him, and then shrugged. "I suppose it's from having a commanding role for a long time. However, what's a mystery to me is that I can't read you at all."  
  
"There's very little to read," he told her calmly.  
  
"Do not take me for a fool, Yuy." Her tone was strict. "I've a record on all that's happened in your lifetime. I know when you lost your first tooth, so wouldn't you expect me to know about your parents?"  
  
Heero stiffened. "I'd say that is private information, but it seems to no longer be."  
  
"When you are a crew member of the Golden Wave, not much remains private. You're of a good line, Heero," said Relena with sincerity if not warmth. "Akira and Kanna Yuy proved themselves to be worthy seafarers a multitude of times in their day. Their fate was certainly tragic." She shook her head, the blond strands flowing back and forth. "I suppose I've nothing to say really."  
  
Heero nodded and moved past her. He had nothing to say either. It was hard to say anything when he looked into her honest cerulean eyes.  
  
"Except that I am pleased to have their son under my command."  
  
He halted mid-stride, more than slightly shocked at her confession. After a few moments, Heero turned around.  
  
But Relena had left him alone in the corridor, where the submarine rocked comfortingly as it moved through the water.  
  
Treize hadn't been quite so angry for about a year now. Even with all the trouble his wife gave him, he'd been able to keep his temper in check. Now, as he stood in his office with Anne leaning against the wall behind him, he wanted nothing more than to lash out – preferably at the woman criticizing him.  
  
"Did you even look into Zechs' latest updates?" Anne demanded, thoroughly miffed by her husband's insolence. "We haven't faced him for over a year! Did you think he was just going to keep things as they were with how we nearly got him last time?"  
  
Treize closed his eyes in a useless attempt to remain patient. "Zechs is content in his little Atlantic hunting spree right now. He wasn't expecting company that favors the Pacific. And besides," he added, taking out his rum bottle, "last time it was your fault. You failed to note that the third engine was running worse than usual."  
  
"This whole ship is doomed!" screamed Anne. "I've said it a million times; we need a new sub."  
  
"I won't have it," he snarled lowly, flicking his butterscotch-colored hair away from his face and uncorking the bottle. "I'm not ashamed of my attachment to this ship."  
  
"You're attached to junk! We're lucky we could get our asses out of the Golden Wave's radars when Noin signaled her capture. Goddamn it, Trieze." Anne stepped forward, snatched the rum bottle from Trieze's deft fingers and flung it at the opposite wall. The bottle shattered and glass tinkled over the floor. "Don't you get it, you miserable excuse for a man? If we keep the Rosetta, we might as well all kill ourselves or turn each other in."  
  
Trieze had no idea she'd do either of those things to him if given a fail- proof opportunity. But there was none, and Anne would never risk a coup without sureness. "This was our dream ship, Anne," he murmured.  
  
"Yeah, well, it's a nightmare now," she seethed. "I'm warning you, Treize. You can't get a colonel as good as me unless it's Relena Darlian herself. And if you don't replace the Rosetta, I will walk away from you." With an impetuous glare, she turned swiftly and exited the captain's office, slamming the door behind her.  
  
Trieze sighed miserably as he stared at the broken glass littering his office floor along with the dark alcohol stains on the wood. Normally, he would call Noin in to come clean up after his impulsive wife. But Zechs had stolen her from him. And how did Zechs work these days, anyway? He couldn't help but wonder; Zechs' and Trieze's days of friendship had long since passed into the changing waves, and he hardly knew the man anymore. Would Zechs have turned Noin in for the hefty bounty on any one of the Rosetta's crew member's heads? Would he have killed her as a result from his peaking ego?  
  
Or, Trieze mused with a clenched fist, would he have snatched her up from under his nose, just like he'd snatched...?  
  
He shook his head roughly and stood up to go order whoever was nearby to clean up the glass shards. Everyone was bored around the Rosetta, anyway, and would be practically begging for the smallest of jobs.  
  
In the doorway, his hand paused on the knob. He smiled the slightest bit. Funny to think of it now, but this was the way he'd seen her last, standing at the door. Leaving.  
  
He had never seen Relena again after that.  
  
It was eight when Heero took the morning shift at security cameras the next morning. He expected to find Captain Merquise manning the panel of screens, but it was Relena that sat there, looking read to fall to the floor. As his slight surprise subsided, he noticed the colonel hadn't even heard him come in.  
  
"Good morning, Colonel," he said to gain her attention. He saluted.  
  
Relena's eyes darted up, a fine glaze over them clearing away. "Heero," she said, half-startled. "Is it time for the shift change, already?"  
  
"The coffee's already going," he pointed out, nodding at the timed brewer on the counter behind her. "Wasn't the captain supposed to have the night clock?"  
  
"Captain Merquise is taking it upon himself to prepare Officer Noin's membership papers," Relena informed him, standing up and brushing her hands over her upper arms; the camera room was drafty with the cold morning water just outside the massive wall of plastic. "He'll start his shift at seven tonight." She moved over to the counter to dump her cold coffee in the sink and took out a new mug. With a small smile that she only showed in this room, she filled the mug and walked back, passing it to Heero.  
  
Their fingers brushed, and the skin-to-skin contact spread warmth that both wished wasn't real. Clearing her throat, Relena took a step back and ran her fingers through her hair, finding it tangled and in need of a wash. "We're going to be docking at a port in Venice for the next couple of days. We should arrive there tomorrow evening, and when we port, everyone wanders. There aren't many rules; stay safe and be back on time."  
  
"I see," Heero replied. He sipped his coffee. As the hot beverage slid down his throat, he contemplated. He'd never been to Italy. He'd never left the U.S. before joining the Golden Wave, in fact.  
  
"It's actually really nice there. About the only place you can compare the land with the sea with all the water." Relena stifled a yawn by pressing the back of her hand to her mouth. "I'm off. Enjoy the screens, Heero."  
  
He seized her pleasant mood faster than he thought he ever could. "While we're in Venice," he said hurriedly, "do you want to go out to dinner with me?"  
  
Relena turned her head back. "Dinner?"  
  
"Italian," he specified. "How do you feel about spaghetti?"  
  
She smirked and did a complete 180, folding her arms over her green uniform T-shirt. "You're asking me out to dinner, right, Yuy?"  
  
Heero shrugged, drank more deeply from his coffee. "That depends on the response, I think."  
  
She was pleased with his cautiousness. That made her give him a level of likeability she hadn't kept open for anyone in a long time. "I could kill some time while we're not in the water."  
  
He returned her smirk with one of his own. "What about your no-favorites policy?" he asked. For Heero, he hadn't felt so much like laughing in a long time.  
  
Relena shrugged. "I can be nice to those who are paying. They aren't, by any means, a favorite." She started to go, and then paused. "Oh, and by the way. In answer to your other question, I have very kind feelings toward spaghetti."  
  
With an almost lazy salute, she left the surveillance room. That part was normal. What wasn't normal was that she was smiling. And so was Heero.  
  
What is up with this productivity streak? I just have to wonder why on Earth I'm so prompted to post lately. You know what this calls for, people...reviews. Lots and lots of reviews! So leave some, please! 


	7. You were toast the second you laid eyes ...

I come forth with chapter seven! This is a heavy chapter and it was a pain, so please enjoy and leave a review!  
  
Chapter dedicated to Zapenstap, for listening to me gripe about how hard this chapter was to write.  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own GW.  
  
Sea of Emotion Chapter 7  
  
By Gundam Girl  
  
Noin was the first one awake that was the part of the crew with the day shift. This was because she hadn't slept all night, and most likely wouldn't until her body positively demanded otherwise. She didn't trust the people here.  
  
Well, she didn't trust the people on the Rosetta, but at least there she knew the territory. Here, it was so different. The atmosphere was...kinder.  
  
Whose doing was that, she had to wonder? Was it the crew's? The one named Duo Maxwell certainly seemed a cheerful fellow. And the doctor, Quatre Winner, was lighthearted as well.  
  
Or maybe it was the captain's. His eyes, she could recall them very clearly. Intense they were when she first glimpsed them, before they had gone into surprise when he had focused on her and then they had become so gentle as he had brought of her to the main deck.  
  
And then he had made her an officer. Instantly. With little questions and no threats. With a welcome in his voice.  
  
Noin shook her head as she roamed the quiet dawn halls of the Golden Wave, the ship she had heard so much about from Trieze and the Rosetta crew. Zechs Merquise probably thought he was doing her a favor.  
  
What she damned was the fact that he was. But at the same time, he wasn't. If Treize ever got to her again, he would be infuriated that she had been caught, she was certain. He would set to punish her. That was one of the ways Treize worked. Beating what he didn't tolerate out of his crew members. Forcing it all out. Forcing...  
  
She shook her head again, this time to clear it. She wasn't on the Rosetta with Treize now. She was on the Golden Wave with Zechs Merquise. Although, hopefully, she wouldn't see the captain again for a few hours. There was something about his eyes she didn't want to deal with so early in the day.  
  
Some would call her a coward unable to face her superior. Noin called herself a coward unable to face a man. It was everything about him, honestly, that made her nervous. His very countenance set her adrenaline pumping and her mind racing. Thoughts of how to possibly escape him had twirled in her brain for a while, but fear of trying and failing made her hands shake, so she had ignored the possible scenarios best she could.  
  
Walking into the kitchen, she pulled over the gigantic refrigerator that was cleaned out and restocked every day from the food in the huge pantry, she pulled out a bottle of water. Her dark eyes landed on the dry-erase board on the fridge door:  
  
Stop in Venice today.  
  
Noon—3am tomorrow  
  
-Captain Merquise  
  
He'd written it himself, Noin noted, instead of ordering a petty messenger to do it for him. He'd been standing right where she was standing now.  
  
She shivered, then cursed herself in the next moment for being effected by a thought so meaningless as that. Tons of people had stood in this spot before, so why the hell should it matter...  
  
Oh, but it did matter. She could picture him, hunched over slightly because he was so damn tall, writing in a sure hand on the board, smiling a little because he seemed to almost always smile. And he would stand in the doorway, she thought, greeting anyone who was already in the kitchen with his smile.  
  
"Good morning, Officer Noin."  
  
She jumped—literally. Noin jerked off balance and had to slap a hand against the nearest wall to keep from falling. Pulse thumping horribly, Noin stared at Zechs Merquise's huge frame in the doorway of the kitchen.  
  
"Early breakfast person?" he queried casually.  
  
Noin squeezed her water bottle and wished to God he would go away. "No, sir," she muttered weakly. "I couldn't sleep."  
  
"I'm sorry to hear that. No one in the crew disturbed you, did they?" This question was a little sharper. Although Zechs appeared completely friendly, it was clear that he intended to run a mature ship. No late- night room partiers would be tolerated.  
  
"No, sir," she repeated, doing her best to straight from the wall. "I was...unused to my surroundings."  
  
Zechs nodded, then went to the fridge, opened it, and pulled out an apple for himself. Rummaging through a drawer, he pulled out a knife and began to cut off bits of apple, biting them right off the edge of the knife. "That's understandable, Officer."  
  
The formality put a bit of the usual spark back in Noin's voice and she decided if she were going to stop being effected by Zechs, she'd have to make a conscious effort. "Your colonel put on a quite a show with me yesterday."  
  
Zechs paused in his task. "Relena had no intention of embarrassing you."  
  
"I wasn't embarrassed," she said hurriedly. Too hurriedly, for sure. "Captain. I truly wasn't. But her actions appeared to me as...rash."  
  
"I believe Relena prefers to think of it as not wasting time. Sometimes she's as though her life is being whisked away from her." He smiled again. "Sometimes she could care less. She's funny that way."  
  
"She doesn't strike me as a funny person."  
  
"That isn't unusual," Zechs answered, pausing to finish his apple. Tossing the core in the waste basket, he added, "She's been at work for a long time. She's never taken a vacation."  
  
"How long has she been working?"  
  
"Since she was twenty. She's twenty-five." He shrugged, stuck his hands in the pockets of his uniform pants. "Hardly ever leaves the ship. I'm hoping today she'll actually go out and see what sunshine feels like."  
  
Noin smiled a little. "Will you?"  
  
Zechs looked at her and tilted his head. The poor vagabond. It was her role, one that didn't suit her. That something he'd decided when he'd first heard her speak so fiercely. This Luchrezia Noin. "A little. I've got repairs and supplies to see to. You're Italian."  
  
It was a statement, one that made Noin realize for the first time exactly where they were going. It was Venice. It was the place she'd...  
  
"Yes," she whispered to answer his question. She tipped back her water and drained the half-full bottle in just three gulps. "Excuse me, captain," she muttered briskly and hurried past him out of the kitchen.  
  
Standing alone of the considerably small room, Zechs stared at the ceiling. An upset woman never pleased him.  
  
An upset Noin – a woman he didn't even know – seemed to tug at something he didn't want tugged at.  
  
Zechs sighed and ran a few fingers through his platinum bangs. He had a feeling today would be a long one.  
  
---  
  
"So, we heard the news."  
  
Relena looked up from her desk to her open dorm room door, seeing the grinning faces of Hilde and Sarah. "Which?"  
  
"The big one." Flouncing inside, Hilde threw herself on Relena's previously well-made bed. "The one that involves you, Heero, and a nice restaurant."  
  
"Aren't all restaurants in Venice nice?" Relena murmured, going back to the paperwork she was looking over and hearing Sarah click her tongue.  
  
"No, dice, Relena. We've docked in Venice before, but you've never gotten out to look at it." More composed, Sarah next to Hilde. "So now that you are, we're thinking you should...dress well for it."  
  
Relena's brow knitted and she pressed her lips together. "I don't need to get ready for another few hours. Heero left me a memo that we'd leave around eight-thirty."  
  
"Eight-thirty?" Hilde went pale. "Relena's it's already four!"  
  
"Yes, it is." Calmly, she turned over the file and began signing it. "I've plenty of time."  
  
"You've no time!" Sarah corrected her. "We've got to find a dress for you! Hilde, quick, go get Duo to find out what Heero's wearing!"  
  
Hilde scrambled up and practically slid out of the room. Sighing a little, Sarah turned back to Relena.  
  
"We could be dead, we could be dead," she murmured.  
  
"Only if I kill you," Relena told her, setting down her pen with a deliberate patience. "I'm not nervous about getting something to eat with a crew member."  
  
Sarah's green eyes bugged out. "'Getting something to eat,' she calls it! This is hell. It is hell! Relena," she insisted, "whether you accept it or not, you're going out on a date tonight with Heero Yuy, mysterious man number one and sexiest man on the Golden Wave. 'Getting something to eat,'" she grumbled and she passed a suddenly frozen Relena to go to the colonel's closet and survey the shoe selection.  
  
No, Relena thought, chewing lightly on her top lip. What she was doing tonight with Heero Yuy was no more than sampling true spaghetti. Definitely. It wasn't a date. Heero didn't consider it a date. And she was certainly not being as ridiculous as being nervous about something that was not a date.  
  
Grumbling a bit herself, she turned back to her paperwork. And saw the multiple scrawls of her signature on something that had only called for it once. Her eyebrows shot up.  
  
Oh God, she was being a teenager. She hadn't acted this way since...since a long time ago. Damn it, Relena thought. It was a date.  
  
---  
  
Treize's bed was cold. It hadn't been cold for five years. Anne had been around for a long time, and then Noin had been handy for his weak moments, and before either of them... He sighed and pulled the thick coverlet closer around his body, bare but for a thin pair of cotton pants.  
  
If the Rosetta had any extravagance anymore, it was in Colonel Une's room. Anne had been spending her nights alone in her mistress's bedroom, sleeping comfortably there for the last two years. She had been hating him that long, he reflected, staring up at the black ceiling. It was mid-day. He had nothing to do; there was no one to raid and no one to run from because it was the time of the month when all the bounty hunters restocked their ships. It was the time of the month when the bounty heads could relax.  
  
Trieze had to wonder, did Zechs do his infamous little mercy trick and lasso Noin as he had with so many people from so many crews? Noin made the second member from Rosetta, though the first official one.  
  
Zechs, he mused, was a clever man, and an iron one unquestionably. Once that damned hunter closed his fist around something he was hard to let it go again. He'd proven that before.  
  
Trieze wanted Noin back. Not for any emotional significance or even entertainment purposes, but Treize wanted her back to show Zechs what it felt like to have something stolen from him. For Zechs had felt that, Treize knew, but not the full extent of it. Now that completeness of having something ripped away, something that put true breath into your body, true light into your soul. He wanted Zechs to know the pain that had been inflicted upon him, he needed Zechs to know the agony of it. Zechs deserved to know. It would make him a better captain. If, of course, he still wanted to be one after Treize was through with him.  
  
He would, Khushrenada thought as he stood from bed and began to dress, face this new day, already half-over, with a smile. For once since he'd set out in the Rosetta, he wanted to approach a victim with intent other than just mere stealing. He intended to completely rob the Golden Wave of everything that made it so great.  
  
---  
  
"Okay!" Duo exclaimed cheerfully. "The sun's shining, the ship's docked, you're showered, you're dressed, and you're...kinda...relaxed." And the poll's going strong, he added silently. "I'd say you're ready."  
  
"I'd say," Heero replied, tucking his wallet in the back pocket of his plain black slacks, "that I'm toast."  
  
"Nah, you were toast the second you laid eyes on her. Think of it this way." Duo grinned, leaning against the wall. "You're the first person to score a date with Colonel Relena Darlian, twenty five years old and beautiful as an angel on Cloud Nine, in her whole career. No matter what happens, you're a god among the crew." He slapped a hand on Heero's back, which was covered with a sapphire-blue dress shirt. "And you've paid like two hundred dollars for dinner, so you better have a fucking good time." He winked. "And don't stinge on that, either."  
  
Heero shot him a dark look. "You better go if you want to live long enough know the results of tonight."  
  
"Eh." Duo winced, twirling his braid absently between his fingers. "No kidding. Have a party," he called as he stepped confidently out of Heero's room. The second he was in the next corridor, he snickered. Heero is one hell of a bastard.  
  
Heero wasn't used to the tingle of nerves along his spine and naturally didn't like them. It occurred to him for the tenth time that day that he didn't have a single idea of what to say to Colonel Darlian. He had brushed off living intentioned females in Panama, and certainly hadn't talked to any of them beyond the word "no."  
  
He supposed that they could discuss work. He was still new, and there must have been plenty things she could say to him. He hoped.  
  
Relena's thoughts ran the same way as Heero's as she walked out of her bedroom to go to the ship entrance, where they had arranged to meet. She ignored the slap of a high-five coming from behind her as Hilde and Sarah celebrated their success.  
  
It had taken a ridiculous amount of time, in her opinion, to get ready. She'd spent an hour just standing in a robe after her shower, going between Sarah's and Hilde's closets (her outfit selection was apparently completely unacceptable). At last they had decided to go with one of Hilde's dresses but would use Sarah's makeup for Relena's complexion.  
  
Relena personally didn't understand. But it had left her friends pleased, so she had nothing to complain about. And, if she did say so herself, the completed image had not been painful to look at.  
  
She saw a figure move out of the corner of her eye and recognized it as the newest crew member. "Officer Noin," she called out, and Noin stopped and looked at her, saluting. Relena returned the salute, noting the blatant surprise on Noin's face. "I realize I'm a bit out of dress to treat you as your colonel," she said, "but I want to ask how you're getting along?"  
  
Noin blinked rapidly and shook her head. "I think...uh...I'm adjusting," she stuttered. "Er, may I ask, Colonel...where are you going?"  
  
Relena suddenly felt very self-conscious of her appearance and the drastic change in it. "I'm going out to eat," she replied as confidently as she could. Hating the odd tremor that wanted to enter her voice, she added, "With Heero Yuy. He's our surveillance officer."  
  
"I see." Noin blinked again, then saluted again and forced a smile. "Well, have a good time then."  
  
"Miss Noin," Relena said slowly. "Did I do something to cause you distress? I am aware that my actions yesterday were most likely unnecessary. If you have a problem with me, I honestly want to know about it."  
  
Noin, and Relena herself, were shocked at the colonel's almost warm behavior. "I... I understood you yesterday, ma'am. I do not resent you for it."  
  
Relena nodded, still a bit baffled at herself. "All right. Enjoy your day, Miss Noin. I hope you'll take advantage of the docking." With a small nod, she continued on her way to the exit, not noticing how her fingers began twisting together at the thought of dinner with Heero.  
  
Noin stared after the colonel, who looked completely out of her element, and then sighed. She was Officer Noin of the Golden Wave.  
  
---  
  
Treize was showered, fully dressed, and holding a mug of bland coffee when he walked onto the main deck and addressed Quinze, his ship navigator.  
  
"Turn around, Mr. Quinze, and head back to Mediterranean waters." Having anticipated it, he nodded at Quinze's off-guard expression. "I intend to discuss a certain matter with a Golden Wave employee."  
  
"Sir." Shaken and believing his captain was crazy, Quinze began to change the coordinates. "Are you certain of this plan? How does Colonel Une feel about it?"  
  
Treize's eyes sharpened. "I am certain. And need I remind you, Quinze, that /i am your captain?"  
  
"No, sir." Quinze shut his mouth and concentrated on his task.  
  
Treize sat down in the chair in the center of the deck. Zechs, he thought, it's finally time for the revenge I've been wanting for five years.  
  
-------------------------------------------  
  
OK, OK, this was more or less a build-up chapter, and I don't deny it. Maybe that's why it was difficult. There comes a time when I know exactly what I want to write, but it's really hard getting up to writing that certain part. The next chapter is a major turning point, so please look forward to it! Review! 


	8. Do you feel like a juvenile kid?

Here's the "date" chapter you've all been waiting for! And suspense.

Disclaimer: I don't own GW.

Sea of Emotion – Chapter Eight

By Gundam Girl

Heero felt odd, standing in the doorway of the _Golden Wave's_ main entrance and feeling the salty breeze that swirled continually around the Venice dock.  Had it really been a month and a half since he'd stood on dry land?  He'd felt as at home under the water as he did over it.  Looking at the city that practically floated, he felt a small smile touch his lips despite his nervousness.  The sun was just setting over the Italian channel-lined town, casting strips of gilt light across the blue-green waters that twisted through it.  It was a beautiful sight.

At the sound of a throat clearing, he turned and saw a sight that was even more beautiful. 

Relena wore dark purple and wore it stunningly; the dress was more or less a brief line of material.  It began at where her arms became slopes that led to her neck, clinging to the shoulders and molding down her hips, where it flared slightly just above her knees.  It was simple, all in all, made of a soft satin but it suited her – and it suited Heero to see her in it.

He looked like a movie star.  Not that Relena had kept up with any of the big celebrities in the past few years, but Heero could have passed for one.  He wore khakis and a black dress shirt, and with his hair in its usual mussed form, he looked like someone to tackle.

Good thing Relena wasn't the tackling sort.

"Heero," she said in greeting, noting how dry her mouth was.  "You haven't been out here long, have you?"

"No."  He had to clear his own throat.  Her hair was mostly down, but it was pulled half up in a way that looked like it could fall any moment, loosing her hair so that it was wild.  He wanted to pull out the tiny restraint and free the soft curls, then plunge his fingers in it.

He wanted to make it through this night without being a total idiot. 

"Oh.  Good."  She forced herself to smile and hoped the powder Hilde had forced her to put on covered the fact that she was probably looking pale.  They were nearly twenty-four, they didn't need to be acting like kids on their first date.  "Well, I…"

"We should go," Heero said quickly.

"Yes.  Okay."  Relena nearly breathed a sigh of relief as they began walking down the dock, her heels clicking with each step.  "So you've never been here?"

"No."  A topic?  A topic.  Conversation.  That was always a good thing, Heero thought.  "How many times have you?"

"This is my fourth time.  Zechs prefers fuel from this part of the world, and there's a supplier here that's good friends with us."  Relena pushed her small purse, borrowed from Sarah, up her arm.  "He knew ou—Zechs' parents."

"Parents do help with a lot of connections, I would guess."  He was curious about her slight stumble in words.

"Hm.  Do—"  Relena abruptly closed her mouth and called herself a bitch.  "Sorry.  It's not my business."

Heero walked a little slower, stuffed his hands in his pockets.  He glanced down at the channel as they crossed over a bridge.  "Go ahead.  It doesn't bother me anymore."

Hearing that would have made any normal person sad.  But Relena was the same way, so she could empathize.  "Did you…come out here so you could honor them?"  When Heero hesitated, she hurried on.  "I'm just wondering because there's similar situations I know of.  Wufei's with us because his brother always wanted to be a sailing bounty hunter, but he died from a heart attack six years ago.  Wufei joined us three years ago."

"He's been with you that long?"         

"Mh-hm."  She twisted her fingers together again, uncharacteristically uncomfortable with the way he was staring down at her all of a sudden.  "Trowa came six months before him, and Quatre's been here since we first started four years ago.  I've known him since we were teenagers.  We both grew up in Southern France, but we've dropped our accents."

Not completely, Heero added silently.  There was still some regality to her voice, a quality that was useful for commanding a ship full of crew members.  "I see.  Well."  He drew out one hand from his pocket and scratched his ear.  "To answer you question, my 'situation,' as you called it, isn't like Wufei's.  I just enjoy the ocean.  You could say it's hereditary."

They both paused at the same time as they went over a bridge and leaned against the railing.  The sun was setting directly across from them, and there weren't any floating taxis blocking the view, a rare thing.  Under the dulling light, the sea gleamed.

"It should be daunting," Heero continued.  It wasn't usual for him to be talkative, but when he was with Relena, he found there was much he could say.  "It's such a big thing, and it's deadly.  But looking at it, you'd never been able to think of that."

"It's not possible for me not to love it," Relena agreed.  "The feel of it, inside and out.  I love to swim, too."

He glanced at her and then tore his eyes away.  The mental images of her in a bathing suit and less than that could possibly cause him to babble. 

"It gives me a sense of calm, too.  I was born on a cruise liner."  She laughed, a sound that made Heero's knees feel unsteady.  "It was my parents' anniversary present to each other.  I came a month early and a doctor that was on vacation delivered me for free.  My brother didn't get any regular souvenir when they got home." 

Heero remembered what Quatre had said about Relena and her brother and veered slightly away from that subject.  "Do you keep in contact with your parents?"

"They're both dead."  She said it so naturally that Heero could have mistaken the sentence for something simple, like a comment about the weather.  "My mother died when I was fifteen.  She had breast cancer.  My father killed himself six months later."  The smile never left her face, like it was frozen there.  "He couldn't summon the strength to live without her."

Heero pushed himself off the rail.  "Some men think that way."

"Would you?"  Before he could even register her words, she chuckled and smacked herself light on the temple.  "I'm sorry, what a weird question.  I don't even know you all that well, and I'm asking something like that."

"No, it's fine."  But because he had no answer for something as un-thought-about as that, Heero shrugged.  "Where do you want to eat?"

---

Dinner was at _Garden Fiesta_, where everything from American-style pizza to gourmet French escargot was available on the menu.  Relena and Heero both ordered spaghetti, as they had agreed upon, and as they shared a basket of brown bread (both refused garlic) and a bottle of red wine, they discussed ship life.

"Is it hard sharing a bathroom?" she joked.  He knew she had her own suite of rooms.    

"Feels like summer camp," he countered just as easily.  "Except that we're not gung-ho about porn."  He remember Duo, "Well, not all of us."

She shook her head and smiled into her wine.  "You didn't look like a fun man when I first met you."

"I wasn't.  Maybe I'm faking it."  He tore of more bread and buttered it just as their entrees came.  "You didn't act like a fun woman."

"But my ass looked fine?"  Her eyes glinted mischievously as he looked away, embarrassed but not in an obvious way.  "You know," she changed the subject as she lifted her fork and twisted some noodles around it, "I didn't think this would be fun.  But it is.  It's also pretty…I'm not sure, simple."

Simple.  That described it perfectly.  Heero dug into his own spaghetti.  "Me either.  I didn't even know what the hell inspired me to ask you out."

"I didn't know what inspired me to say yes.  I haven't been out with a guy since before Zechs and I started the plans for this ship."  Her mouth tightened, but she forced it to soften again.  Heero didn't miss the quick tension.  "Anyway, I'm pleased it's not hard like we both seemed to think it would be."

"You're a surprisingly easy person to talk to."

The baffled her.  Many phrases had been used to describe the strict colonel, but 'easy to talk to' hadn't been one of them.  Relena swallowed some meatball.  "You're not too bad at it either, once you loosen up."

"Hypocrite," he chided.

"Maybe.  I wasn't always so cold, if you believe that, Heero."  She lowered her eyes and finished off the rest of her dinner while Heero thought.

He decided he could believe it.  Her smile was too beautiful to not have been used before. The lavender flecks in her eyes were highlighted by her dress, and he nearly smiled again himself.  Nearly.  He hadn't smiled so freely – if one could call it freely – since he was a kid.

As a kid he'd had nothing, he recalled.  Hell, when he was on the land, he had nothing.  He'd joined the Golden Wave to find something, anything that he could call his pride.  His joy.  And Heero was enjoying himself and others on the Golden Wave; if he was honest with himself, he could admit that it was likely he and Duo and probably Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre would become friends.  He had fallen into routine on the ship, and undoubtedly, it was his home now, with all of the above added. 

But _pride _and _joy _weren't the words he'd used to describe his need for leaving Panama to Dr. J.

He'd said _what if_.  And it couldn't be denied that when he looked at Relena…  Heero thought about all sorts of what ifs. 

Not all of them were innocent, either.

"It's dark now."  He didn't know why he stated that it was, but he didn't really care.  He was feeling impulsive.

"Moonlight on the sea.  That's the best thing about being surfaced, I think.  Being able to see the water shining like that."  Relena drank the rest of her wine and stand up.  "But we should be heading back, don't you think?"

"Yeah."  He wiped his mouth with the burgundy linen napkin and motioned to their waiter.  "I'll get the bill."

"I'll be right back."  In a classic maneuver that women with even the least of experience know, she smiled and turned on her heel, heading toward the bathroom.

The feminine, perfumed room with tiled walls and a plush couch was the escape Relena felt she desperately needed.  As the soft Italian opera music cleared her head, Relena walked to the row of meticulously clean sinks, and bypassed the little bottles of body spray and other quaint necessaries for plain soap.  She washed her hands, splashed a little bit of water on her neck.  She'd been watching him while he had been staring out the window by their booth.  Relena didn't think she'd been boring him; the talking had gone very well.  She hadn't spilled her wine or gotten something caught in her teeth.  She hadn't lost an eyelash.  She'd been doing everything right.  So had Heero, as far as she knew.  And nothing above casual had passed between them.

But she felt so _hot.  _It felt like her clothes could melt off her any moment.  He had a remarkable stare that had fixed on her whenever she said anything.  Who would have thought a gaze as cool as his seemed to be would actually be so searing?

When it came to sexual energy, Relena opted for denying all.  She'd only felt this way once before in her entire life, and that man was over and done with.  She hadn't expected to experience this wave of feelings ever again.  When she was with Heero, everything turned itself upside down and shook hard.

God, she thought as she carefully repaired her food-lightened pink lipstick.  She wished her stomach would stop trembling, dammit.

She doused herself with perfume from, like the lipstick, her purse and took a deep breath.  Dubbing herself ready, she opened the door and walking with a swinging gait to where Heero was waiting by the restaurant's door.  She noticed before he turned to look at her that he had released a button on his dress shirt.

She took it back; if he looked at her, she would never be ready.

"Ready?"

It took her a second to realize he was speaking to her, but she nodded, her brain fuzzy.  "Yeah."

"Okay."  He hesitated, but then he held out his arm.  He felt more than a little foolish, but his damned teenager-like nerves settled when she slipped her hand under his elbow.

When they got back to the same bridge they'd stopped on before, Relena tugged on his arm a bit and they stopped again.

"Let's be honest with each other," she said slowly.  "Does that sound fair to you?"

"Very fair," he nodded.  He had to resist undoing another button on his shirt. 

Relena took another breath and leaned her back against the rail, Heero standing directly in front of her.  "Do you feel like a juvenile kid? 'Cause I sure as hell do."

He chuckled a little, both amused and surprised.  "What happened to the us that swing-danced without any timidity at all?"

She shrugged and folded her arms, causing the neckline of the dress to dip a bit.  Heero forced his eyes to stay on hers.  "I think we gave ourselves time to think about it."  Turning away from him, she had to grin.  "This is what I was telling you about."

With effort, Heero looked past her.  The moon was full and cast a milky glow onto the blackish-blue water below them.  Heero wasn't sure if it was more beautiful here than in Panama because he was in Italy, in Venice no less, or because he was standing here looking at it with Relena Darlian.

"It's good," he said simply.  He shrugged when she looked back at him.  "I'm not one to work well with words."  It was an honest sentence.

"That's all right.  'Good' is the right word for it."  She looked back at the moon-tinted water over her shoulder.  "It's very good."

When she turned her head back to him, they were a lot closer than she had realized.  Relena didn't move, however.  Neither did Heero.

And neither looked away.

Slowly, as though pulled by a string controlled by something with a plan, both of Heero's eyes slid around Relena's trim, satin-clad waist, drawing her ever nearer.  When she didn't resist, he bowed his head.  "Relena…"

The heat inched through her again even as her arms wound about his neck.  She discovered she liked the sound of her name when he said it and thought maybe he'd like his coming from her.  "Heero."  She tilted her face up to look at his.

Beneath a full moon and above lunar-dappled waters, their lips met and clung.

And a sea of emotions rushed around them.

---

"Are you coming in?"

Relena smiled at him and hugged her arms around herself.  "In a second.  I'll stay out here and watch the water for a little longer.  Go ahead inside.  We both have to be up early in the morning for the dive." 

Heero stepped up to her outside the door of the _Golden Wave _and tipped her chin back, kissing her softly.  "Goodnight."

She kissed him back, smiling almost goofily.  "Goodnight."

When the door shut behind the surveillance officer, the colonel let out a long sigh and leaned against the side of the ship.  She'd only be out here until her heart stopped racing so quickly.  Then Relena reasoned she could be out here all night and gave herself five minutes max.  Zechs would want a roll call done before the doors locked for the night.

_Heero Yuy_, she thought, touching her fingers to her lips.  _You are a mysterious man._  She rolled her eyes in the next moment for acting like an immature schoolgirl, but the smile didn't leave her face.

Just as she turned to go in, a voice called to her.

"Colonel Darlian?"

She turned back again.  "I'm Colonel—"

Her eyes were covered first, then her mouth and nose.  Something sweet invaded her senses in the most unwelcome way.  The white glow of the moon she'd been staring at was overpowered by a swirling pitch of black. 

She struggled, fought it, lashed out—she could hear a curse when her shoulder jarred against something.  But then her knees buckled and her arms went limp.

A male name raced across her mind, and for the first time, it wasn't that of her brother: _Heero!_

And then the darkness consumed her.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Review please!


	9. I can clearly recall telling you that I ...

Here's chapter nine! Thanks for liking and reviewing and everything, guys!

Disclaimer: I don't own GW.

Sea of Emotion – Chapter Nine

By Gundam Girl

An hour or so later, Heero found he uncharacteristically couldn't stop smiling.  An hour after parting with Relena, he was sitting at the desk in his room, penning a fast note to Dr. J.

"I'm learning new things here and I'm enjoying it. I'm on surveillance position, which is split between the captain, the colonel, and myself." Heero paused.  In what way could he word this without seeming suspicious? "I went to dinner with the colonel tonight.  We discussed life on a ship and what may be required of me.  The colonel has been to far more places than me." That sounded all right, he figured.  "The colonel's" gender hadn't been specified, after all. "I am currently in Venice.  We will be leaving port in a matter of hours, and every member of the crew must be awake.  I don't think that will be a problem for me.  I'm considering returning to Panama when they give me my first break.  If you need any help with the shop then, I can be there.  --Heero" 

No sentimentality was needed for Dr. J.  The old man was hard as nails and had raised him partially as a soldier – J had supposedly worked much with the US army back when he was young.  He'd lost his arm then, Heero supposed, and had probably earned the title of "Doctor" from that time as well.

Leaning the chair back on its hind legs, he looked up at the ceiling.  Relena Darlian.  Christ, even her name was interesting.  She was Northern European, but somehow her surname didn't quite fit well with her nationality.  Perhaps her father had been of a different nationality and she just looked like her mother. 

He'd kissed her.  A couple of times.  And, reasonably thinking, it wasn't that important.  He had kissed and been kissed before.  And he couldn't really describe it as a big step in getting to know each other better; they each knew the other's basic back ground, Relena knowing more of his than he of hers.

But Heero wasn't feeling exactly reasonable.  As he rose from the desk and stuck the letter in a plain envelope, scribbling down the address, he recalled the indescribable feeling that had whirlpooled inside of him while kissing Relena.  He had never cared much for the girls he had let this close to him in the past.  But with this woman, Heero thought he just might start to care _very _much.

Leaving his room to get to the mailbox just outside the ship, he thought it was lucky he hadn't run into Duo yet and had his mood spoiled.  He was sure he'd be found by the braided snoop soon enough. 

_Speak of the devil.  _There were footsteps coming toward him in the parallel corridor ahead.  Heero mentally resigned; he'd just have to tolerate the interrogation that Maxwell was sure to start in on him with.

The person that appeared out of the other corridor wasn't Duo.  It was Zechs.  Heero halted immediately and saluted.  Zechs turned to him and his face seemed to harden. 

"Yuy," he said, saluting back in an absent-minded way.  "Have you seen Colonel Darlian?"  His pale eyebrows rose in expectancy, suspicion never leaving his features.

Heero dropped his hand from his forehead.  "Sir, I was with her about an hour ago."

Curiosity fluttered over Zechs' face first, but it was closely followed by solemnity.  "Do you know where she is now?"

"I know she was going to stand outside the ship for awhile," Heero replied, voice calm but mind racing, "and then she said she'd be in.  Has she not reported to you?"

"No."  Zechs had a both fists clenched at his side.  "I want you to come with me to take a look."

Heero's shoulders were tense as both men went to the submarine's main entrance.  Zechs punched in the code to unlock the door and they stepped outside.

Relena was not there.  Heero cast a quick glance at the captain.  His face was shining with sweat and his chest was rising and falling sporadically.

"Relena?" Zechs called out first.  "Relena!"

Heero didn't know what to do.  It seemed logical that Relena was inside the ship, but Zechs would have checked in her room first, surely.  And if Relena wasn't onboard then…

He saw it out of the corner of his eye.  It was a wonder he noticed it at all, the dark purple color making it nearly invisible in the dark.  Bending over, he picked up the small velvet purse.  "Relena," he murmured.

Zechs whirled around and saw the object it his subordinate's hands.  Snatching it from him, he proceeded to tear into the small bag and pull out his colonel's identification card.  "It's hers," he confirmed.

Heero had known that without the ID.  "Sir?"  His own palms were clammy now, and he wiped them on his dress pants.

"Relena isn't dense enough to forget things."  Zechs grabbed a hunk of long hair and tugged on it.  "Shit.  Shit!"

"What could have happened to her?" Heero asked softly, but deep down her had a feeling that he could guess and guess well. 

"Mediterranean waters," muttered Zechs.  "Goddamn, this is Treize's territory."  Lifting the purse to his face, he sniffed at it.  "Chloroform.  Some of it dripped onto here.  That fucking bastard!  Hey, you!"  Stomping over, he snagged at the coat of a dock attendant.  "What did the last ship to pull out of here look like?"

The attendant was a slight man and wore round-rimmed glasses that were sliding off his nose as Zechs shook him.  "There was one," he said, "at the dock on the opposite side of the city.  It was dark, black I think."

Zechs' eyes were wild as he continued to rattle the poor man.  "What was its name?!  Tell me right now!"

"The Ros— The Rosetta!" blurted the attendant.  "The Rosetta from Costa Rica!  An old tour ship."

"Costa Rica and tour ship my ass," seethed Zechs.  He pushed the man away, for the attendant had no use to him.  "Yuy, we're going inside.  We're diving now!"

"Yes, sir."  Heero knew it would be better to, but he couldn't manage to keep his mouth shut.  Relena wasn't there.  Relena was gone.  "Sir, is it Khushrenada?"

"You bet your damn life it's Khushrenada."  Zechs nearly destroyed the padlock as they stormed back onto the _Golden Wave.  _"And you can bet _his _life that he's not going to get away with taking my sister!"

Heero's shoes squeaked as his froze.  Zechs didn't notice and kept walking, shouting orders to anyone he saw.  Sister?

_She doesn't like men, save her brother…_

_I believe you only wanted a dance. Singular.  I best go make excuses to my brother._

_Miss Darlian and her brother are unfortunately too far from each other._

Relena cared about her brother and even enjoyed his company, they said.  Relena never left the ship, they said.

Heero understood.  She wouldn't _have _to leave this ship if her brother was _on _the ship.  When he thought about it, there were physical similarities.  Their eyes, their jaw lines, even the thickness of their hair…  All were hints of a kinship and a close one at that.  But how could he realize that…?

"Yuy!"  Zechs was turned and scowling at him.  "What the hell are you doing just standing there?  Move!"

Heero sprang forward, mind-boggled.  He told himself he couldn't afford to ponder the mystery now.

Relena had been taken from them.  And he would get her back.

---

She drifted awake as though she was drifting to sleep.  For a few moments, it was difficult to determine what was reality and what wasn't.  When Relena was fairly certain she knew which was which, she found herself lying in a wide room atop a large, blue bed.  Her bedclothes were blue, but darker than this sky color.  And she didn't have a hardwood floor, all the rooms on the _Golden Wave _had carpeting.  This wasn't her room at all.

Colonel Darlian?  

God.  She pressed a hand to her forehead as she sat up.  She remembered it now.  She'd been with Heero, then she had been alone thinking of Heero, and then…

Damn it!  What the hell was wrong with her?!  She'd never have been caught like this if her focus hadn't been so skewed.  One date and her entire nature tips off-kilter.  And look what the bloody result was.

Relena took a deep breath and told herself to calm down.  Being distracted had gotten her into this mess; organization would help her get out of it.  Standing, she suffered from some minor dizziness and a left foot that had fallen asleep.  Grasping one of the poles of the four-poster bed, she muttered a curse and analyzed her current position.

She was on a submarine.  Or at least she was inside a submerged vehicle, she could tell by the slightly narrow pressure of the room.  Turning, she saw the door just as it was opening.  Relena recognized the voice before the face.

"Funny, I used to think this would never be how I'd get you into my bedroom."

Relena swallowed gasp.  "Treize," she said darkly, forcing her tone to remain unsurprised.  "I don't find it funny in the least."

Treize smirked as he entered the room.  Relena didn't so much as blink as he shut the door behind him. "I should have suspected at first thought that you would pull the cheap tricks," she continued.

His cool eyes flashed but did nothing else as he took a step toward her.  Relena's grip tightened on the pole.  "Be honest, Relena.  You're not really that unhappy to see me."

Her eyebrows lowered.  "Take an educational guess, Treize.  I don't think of being chloroformed and brought to you against my will as a good time.  Besides."  She brought her hand, slightly trembling, down to her side.  "I can clearly recall telling you that I had no desire to see you ever again.  Why do you think that has changed?"

"It's been years."

"But aren't we still in the same lifetime?"  Relena let out a cold laugh.  "That's how long I promised to hate you."  Even as she said this, she contemplated possible means of escape.  It was unlikely that she could manage to swipe a single-person sub-vessel.

He laughed back at her, and his voice was no warmer.  "I'm sure you know that, for me, promises are things that matter very little."  He moved closer and Relena moved back.  She wasn't afraid of this man, she told herself.  She was not afraid of Treize Khushrenada.

When her back hit the wall and his hands trapped her by going flat against the wall on either side of her, she bit her tongue.  Shit, she _was _afraid of him.

His smile remained.  "It seems your feelings for me really haven't changed over the years."

"Damn you," she replied angrily.  "What the hell do you want from me?"

"What I wanted from you years ago isn't worth having anymore.  There's better, I'm sure."  At the growl in her voice, she grinned.  "In fact, one of them is on your brother's little yellow submarine right now." 

"Noin.  She never wanted you, Treize."  She forced a sweet smile.  "Where's Anne this evening?"  When the back of his hand hit her cheek, his wedding ring, decorated with tens of tiny diamonds, nearly tore skin and she tasted blood.  "I forgot," she snarled.  "The wife is never mentioned in these types of affairs, right?"

"Still such a smart one," Treize commented.  For now, his temper was controlled again.  "I could say the brains attracted me first, but of course then I'd be lying."  His gaze dipped and rose again.

"I don't remember that ever bothering you before, you freak bastard."  Relena wiped blood from the corner of her lips with her thumb.  "Treize Khushrenada – thief of the sea.  And to think you actually enjoy that title."

"Relena Darlian – hunter of the sea.  The same goes to you," Trieze told her.  "Let's not even start on Zechs."

"He's always been a better man than you.  I bet Anne wishes _she _was the one Zechs took onto the _Wave _instead of Noin."  The words were meant to strike him, and strike they did.  Trieze visibly flinched. 

He suddenly gripped her chin, digging his fingers into it and threatening to crush the bones in her jaw.  "I'm going to enjoy watching Zechs suffer at the loss of you," Treize whispered.  "God knows I'll love that.  Maybe when I'm bored with him I'll take up interest in you again."

She managed to mumble around his fingers, "Go back to your bottle, Trieze.  Surely you've mastered crawling inside of it by now."

Shaken, Treize forcefully pushed her away, and this time when she hit the wall it was harder.  Her spine met the wood first, and then she thought she heard her skull crack against it.  As she crumpled to the floor and back to darkness, she heard footsteps move out of the room.

_---_

"I want to do this.  Please, tell me you'll join me.  There's no other I'd rather have at my side in this than you." 

Zechs could hear his own words, ones he'd spoken nearly five years ago.  They were as true now as they had been when he had said them to Relena.  His sister had always been everything to him, especially after their parents had died. 

He'd never really pictured Relena, or himself for that matter, as a bounty hunter.  But, after much thinking it through, he had thought it would be good for a restless spirit like himself.  Relena had done as much thinking, if not more, as him and had agreed to his plan a week a half later.  She had not been the least bit keen on the idea when he first brought it up, but she had come.  There had been situations that would have kept her, and to this day, Zechs didn't know what had transpired to change them.  He hadn't honestly cared that much as long as she had stayed with him.

It was a selfish feeling, he knew.  But ever since the death of their parents, Zechs had felt very alone and hadn't been able to shake that from his heart.  Relena almost did, and he hadn't wanted that; he hadn't wanted to be the only one that was by himself.

But tonight…well, last night, she had been with Yuy.  Perhaps, Zechs sighed, it had really only been a matter of time.  Relena was an attractive person, and he wasn't surprised that a stiff like Heero had been taken in by her.  That man seemed to need closure desperately.  In a way, it seemed that everyone on the _Golden Wave _did.  They were, after all, bounty hunters.

His musing was interrupted by a knock on his suite's door.  Annoyed because he was trying to think of a course that might lead them to the _Rosetta_, he half-growled out the "Come in."

Noin hurried inside the room, shut the door, and saluted to him crisply.  "Captain Merquise."

"Officer Noin."  He'd almost forgotten about her completely.  What an idiot.  "I'm sorry.  I know this situation seems chaotic, but we do have a procedure for this.  If you're confused, I'm sure that Mr. Barton can inform you of—"

Noin's jaw tightened as she interrupted.  "With all due respect, sir, I'm very familiar with these kind of happenings.  That's sort of why I'm here."  She swallowed.  She had never had to openly speak of her experiences on the _Rosetta _before.  "I believe I know where Treize could be heading."

Zechs dropped the pen he'd been using onto the desk and stood up.  Forcing himself to be professional, he only failed slightly at keeping the anxiousness out of his throat.  "Miss Noin, I understand this must be difficult for you.  I wouldn't suppose switching loyalties is an easy thing to do."

She shook her head.  "I'm not very troubled, sir, honest.  I am as upset by Colonel Darlian's kidnapping as everyone else.  I do know it was him, sir.  This is the exact style he uses every time he uses ransom."

"And by him you mean Treize."

Noin nodded curtly.  "It's possible that he'll be going back toward Austria, sir.  He prefers his home country when doing something despicable by even his standards."  Her teeth clenched subtly.  "You realize this is a trap, don't you, sir?"

"I do."  Zechs looked at her carefully.  "You realize that you're the reason he set it, don't you, Noin?"

Her eyes never left his; she was not that weak.  "I would rather die than go back to that ship, Captain Merquise."

Zechs' frown deepened.  "Noin, if you're—"

"Please, sir, listen."  Her dark eyes shimmered with indescribable energy.  "There is something I have to ask of you.  You should know that I only came to serve Khushrenada because he saved my life.  But I didn't want him to.  I was trying to kill myself."

"Noin!"

"Please."  She held up a hand.  "If it becomes necessary to regaining Colonel Darlian, I would prefer that you are the one to kill me."  A tiny smile turned up the corners of her lips.  "I've known you for a very short time.  But I do admire you, sir.  If my life has to end, I can't think of anyone else I would have do it."

Zechs stared at her, shock evident all over his face, and not just by her words.  Through everything she had just said, she had smiled as though it was no big deal.  As though dying was nothing important.

Abuse was to be expected from a man like Treize.  What else could possibly have happened to her?  She had met Treize by trying to commit suicide?  What in God's name…

"Sir?"

Zechs snapped out of his musings and turned away from her.  He couldn't watch that smile.  Because behind it, he was certain, there was a great sadness he couldn't begin to claim to share.  "Officer Noin, please tell the bridge to set a course for Austria.  I trust you to give them details."

There was silence for a few minutes, but then her quiet voice answered with a formal "Yes, sir."  He heard the door open and close and footsteps echo down the empty corridor outside.

Zechs dropped into his desk chair again.  He was Zechs Merquise, captain of the bounty-hunting submarine, the _Golden Wave_.

And he was in hell.

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	10. I admire your sense of honor

We've made it to chapter 10. This is probably going to be longer than the rest of my fics at this rate, so yay for length! (Or not… Who knows?) Thanks for keeping up, guys!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Sea of Emotion – Chapter Ten

By Gundam Girl

Zechs was holding a meeting in a rarely used conference room on the ship with higher members of the crew. Duo, Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre were all present, in addition to Noin and Sally Po. Heero, although a currently low officer, was particularly needed but he had managed to sit in on account of being the last person to be with Relena.

"How soon do you think we'll be able to rendezvous with the _Rosetta_?" Zechs was asking Trowa. His shoulders were taught, his jaw firm, and his eyes hard as steel. Everything about him dared the world to lay another bad thing on him right now.

"If we keep this speed," Trowa replied, using a little handheld digital device to see their current coordinates and the most probably location of Treize's ship, "we could catch up to them in another three or so hours."

"That long?"

"The _Rosetta _may be getting to old to still be used to its full advantage, but as long as it keep move with a speed to challenge ours – which it obviously can – it would be wishful thinking to believe we could rendezvous with such clear water around Italian land such as this." Trowa light brown eyebrows were narrowed as he scanned the coordinates. Line patterns and dots of red light shone on his face from the device's screen. His listeners waited patiently for him to continue. "There's a change that if we can cut them off if they take the peninsula between Italy and Germany northwest of Austria, by Bregenz. They'll have to slow there; I saw in our last run-in that Treize can maneuver that well anymore."

"That's true," Noin supplied. "The whole ship's on the verge of falling apart."

"Why doesn't he get rid of it?" Quatre queried.

"He's sentimental to a dangerous degree. He doesn't like that the ship he and Anne were married on is pretty much sea scrap." She made a face. "He'll get repairs done, but with the _Rosetta _in its state, they can't do enough raids to pay for them all. So it's doomed to failure. Knowing him, he'll meet his death the day it sinks."

"Well," Zechs put in, "our goal is to get Relena the hell off of there before it does." He frowned. "We'll need a team. Treize will want to strike a deal – Relena for Noin, most likely. In that time, we're going to have to get Relena onboard."

"In broad daylight?" Duo spouted. "That's hardly gonna be easy."

"I'm trusting _you, _Duo," Zechs countered, "to use that trusty stealth skill of yours. By far, we are the better crew."

"We're bounty hunters," Wufei grumbled, "not a rescue team. Do you have any idea at all on how to go about this? There's no plan, no strategy other than catching up with them."

"That's vital, though. Chances are we'll have to figure out the next step when we meet up with Treize." Out of the corner of his eye, Zechs checked Heero's figure. He was sitting straight, head bent forward, intently listening to every word that was said but making no sound himself.

Sally, a very mature, clear-thinking woman who was dating Wufei, pressed her lips together in worry. "I understand that our options are limited, Zechs. We've never had an encounter like this before. And I know you're upset because it's Relena, but… We're so low on positive outcome possibilities."

"Let's face it," Duo said, brow creased. "It sucks big-time dealing with crazy guys."

They weren't getting anything done, Heero thought, eyes sharp on every person in the room. Relena was being held captive on some stranger's ship, and they were just sitting there throwing negatives back and forth.

"I'll go," he said.

Everyone turned to him, a question inside all of them.

"You said you needed a team," Heero elaborated, his voice flat and concise. In his chest, his heart beat faster than it ever had in his life, not from nerves, but determination. "You don't. Whatever ends up happening, I'll go. You won't need anyone else."

Zechs crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair speculatively. "I don't know whether to call you brave or simply arrogant."

"I don't care what you call me," Heero told him readily. "I'm going to get Colonel Darlian back for you. This is my fault. I shouldn't have left her out there by herself."

"That's not necessarily true. Relena's a very tough person." However, Zechs though, a moment of weakness had gotten her into trouble in the past as well. "So you're asking me to let you go after her when we rendezvous?"

"You don't have to let me. I'm telling you." Heero watched Zechs's brow furrow and wasn't effected by it. Nothing mattered to him at this point in time but Relena's safety. "I can be a reckless person. I may disobey orders. If I do, you can kick me off the crew later. But I _will_," he said in a fierce growl, "do what I know I have to do to return your sister."

Zechs stared at the Japanese man with a considering gaze, noting how she had used the colonel's first name. Heero met his stare with one of his own that was just as calculating. Everyone else in the room were silent for the duration of their analyzing of each other, and Zechs' mind raced. How in such a short time had this man come to be such an important part of his crew?

Finally, Zechs smirked a bit. "I don't think it will end up being necessary to kick you off, Mr. Yuy. I admire your sense of honor." He stood up from his chair, face serious once again. "Mr. Barton, make sure we stay on a direct course to Austria. When we rendezvous, Mr. Chang, be sure that the crew is prepared for indecisive action. That includes weapons, Mr. Maxwell, _and _an open medical ward, just in case, Mr. Winner." He nodded to each of their salutes and turned back to Heero. "And then we'll see what we can do with you, Mr. Yuy."

Heero exhaled largely but unnoticeably. He hoped he could live up to expectation.

---

Relena stared out the tiny, circular window at the dark ocean. From a place so full of hard feelings, it was difficult to get any joy out of watching the sea life live and the ocean pulse its unique heartbeat. Or maybe it was just knowing that Treize was always within nine hundred feet of her that made her gloomy.

Her head hurt like a bitch still from where he'd flung her against the wall in response to her sharp tongue. There was dried blood matted in her hair and she'd been given nothing to drink since her wine at the restaurant with Heero, and she was feeling dehydrated. More than that, she was obscenely tired.

But she was too worried to sleep, and, if truth be told, too nervous. Treize's methods could never be trusted and she didn't want to be caught offguard if he decided to visit her again. Also, the fit that she knew Zechs was likely to be having kept her awake.

_Zechs… _In one of her rare moments, Relena thought about the name and smiled a bit, knowing her expression was melancholy. It was amazing how she called him only that now. Back when he'd been…well, who he had been…he'd have laughed at her if she ever gave him a nickname. And although Zechs wasn't a nickname, really, he _had _laughed at her for using it at first. Now he responded to it as though everyone had called him that since birth. They hadn't.

It was difficult to believe that it was almost half a decade since she and Zechs had fist commissioned the _Golden Wave _to be built. Almost five years since they both had abandoned one life for another. So many things had happened that year…but she didn't like to think about it often. She was Colonel Relena Darlian, a commanding, firm woman who knew what she wanted out of life. The girl she had been years ago was now left behind in Europe.

"Is there something very interesting about it?"

If the voice had been Treize's, Relena might have shot from her chair, prepared to defend herself. But it wasn't and she turned slowly. "Anne." Her tone was flat, but she nodded her head in a form of greeting. "I was just admiring the view."

"You've still got a lot of nerve to call me by my first name," Une told her, the side of her mouth quirked up in a bit of a sneer. "I'd wondered if that was still there or not. As for the view, I don't think I've ever liked it as much as you have."

Relena didn't know what to say to that, so she replied with, "It's been a very long time since I've seen you. You look…healthy," she managed to say. It was the truth. Anne did look as fit as ever, but the color was gone from her cheeks and there was a vertical line between her eyes that looked as though someone had drawn it there with a permanent marker.

Anne's eyes flashed. "I don't think it's very appropriate for us to make small talk. Treize doesn't like it, and neither do I."

"What doesn't Treize like?" Relena asked, feeling her blood temperature rise. "That you have an issue talking to me or that I don't give a damn?" Her fingers shot out to stop Une's hand before it could make contact with her cheek. "I'm getting really tired of you and your charming husband thinking I don't mind it if you just decide to smack me around now and then."

"It's nothing less than you deserve," she seethed. "But I didn't come in here to harm you. I came to tell you your precious sub is here to fetch you." She yanked her wrist out of Relena's grip and turned. "Follow me and see what happens or stay here and wait for Treize. This is where _I _don't give a damn."

Relena, lips parted in surprise, watched Une stride out of the room with the air of a person used to being treated superiorly. She looked out the window again first and saw that the ship was indeed rising. A face-off? Was that was Treize wanted? Just what was Zechs planning?

Her brother was such an idiot when it came to bounties. There was a possibility he intended to both retrieve her _and _bring in Treize's crew. She was fairly certain they couldn't pull that off. They weren't good, but it wasn't proven that they were quite that good.

Nerves sizzling, she stood up, folding her arms across herself to keep the emotions in. If she admitted to anyone that she was afraid, it certainly wouldn't be herself.

---

Noin watched the approaching ship they were quickly approaching with a feeling that made her feel both weak and strong. She didn't like the idea of dying, if it came to that, but it would be better than returning to be Treize's whore.

If she could, she'd try going back home and see if Tsubarov needed a servant. To think if she had maybe stayed with him, she'd be a rich wife in Russian society, planted firmly at a mansion, safer than she had in her whole life.

She had never wanted that for herself, but the way things had ended up with her aboard the _Rosetta_ was far worse. Now, here she was on the _Golden Wave_, causing trouble and then getting Merquise's colonel dragged into an affair she had nothing to do with.

"It isn't your fault."

Noin jumped, whirling around with her hand halfway to the gun that was usually on her belt but was nowhere to be grasped now. Her narrowed eyes relaxed when she saw Captain Merquise. When she realized what he'd said, she slackened completely and leaned against the side of the ship. "You can say that, sir, if you believe it's going to make me feel better."

Zechs frowned at her for a moment. She was a very forward woman, when it came right down to it, but there was something strangely admirable about her honesty. "I'm not saying it to make you feel better," he said, looking out at the land on either side of them. "I'll telling you the truth. There has always been…history…between Treize, Relena, and myself."

"Don't you mean your sister?"

Zechs' eyes snapped back to hers. "What?"

"I heard Heero Yuy say it in that meeting." And she'd been very surprised, initially, Noin thought. However, now that she knew, it made much more sense than one would think. Siblings ran businesses together all of the time. And although this was probably one of the more eccentric partnerships, there was no reason it couldn't work. But it was strange that someone as clearly protective as Zechs Merquise would invite his sister to run a crew of bounty hunters with him. And if they _were _siblings, why the separate last names? Was Zechs a Merquise or a Darlian? Was he either? There was so much Noin didn't know about him.

_"It's better that way, _Noin told herself even as she stared into those fascinating icy eyes. _You're going to be dying soon."_

Zechs could practically smell the worry coming off of her, and he placed a tense hand on her equally tense shoulder. "Relax," he said, though his voice was anything but soothing. "I'm going to do everything I can for you." He meant it. He _wanted _to, even if he didn't know why.

Noin bit her lip. "I should thank you—"

"Thank me later," he interrupted, forcing a smile, "when we have both you and Relena safe on this ship." With that, he withdrew his hand and stepped away, not turning back as he walked to the front of the ship's outer deck.

Noin sighed, tremors still running through her, lightly but enough to keep her fingers shaking. As they neared ever closer to the _Rosetta, _people began to file onto the deck. Someone came to stand beside her, and she turned to look at the tautness of his jaw and the intensity in his eyes.

"You look surprisingly calm," she commented to him.

Heero lifted one shoulder and let it fall after a beat. "I've never been one to panic."

"I saw the look on your face when Colonel Darlian was first reported missing," Noin countered. "You didn't seem particularly collected just then. In fact, you were downright ashen."

Heero inhaled slowly. It depressed him to be able to smell the salt of the sea Relena loved and not have her here to breath it in with him now. He flicked his gaze over to the older woman's dark eyes. "I've never been responsible for the loss of someone so important." He'd never been responsible for the loss of anyone. He watched Noin shift her weight to one foot.

Noin contemplated Yuy's words, finding it extraordinary – and a little depressing – that a boy so young and so seemingly inexperienced was so rational about such an event. Well, perhaps not so rational, she corrected, remembering the way he had so boldly offered to take any action regarding Relena's safety.

He was a brave kid, she had to admit, and respected him for it. She and people like her might have considered youth a drawback. It wasn't the people who went without proof of character and action who earned admiration. Heero hadn't, as yet, done anything relative to the seafaring business that was deemed worthy of recognition. His attitude demanded that he be taken seriously. Noin certainly would.

"Whatever you decide to do, if you decide to do anything," Noin found herself saying, "I hope you come back, Yuy. You seem like a hell of a guy. In time, I wouldn't hold back saying you could be a hell of a sailor, huh?" Saying so, she turned and watched with him as the _Golden Wave _and the _Rosetta _finally pulled together, side-by-side.

---

Treize smiled. So, here was the moment of truth. If men were to be separated from the boys today, he was going to make sure he was no boy.

From his place on the Rosetta's outer deck, he could see Zechs. They were too far apart for him to discern a certain expression, but Treize knew he'd be wearing that incriminating scowl of his.

_"The one I've been on the receiving end of so many times." _Something almost like sentimentality made him smile. He turned to a nearby crew member. "Please escort Colonel Darlian up here onto the deck."

"Yes, sir." The member hurried away to the door that led down into the ship, but it opened just before he reached it. Une stood there with Relena just beyond her, and the two moved out onto the deck.

"It seems," Une said with a slight smile of her own, "that all of our friends have arrived for a party." She turned her brown eyes onto Relena. "Of course, there's always the one who comes early."

Relena's eyes met hers strong gaze for strong gaze. "I'm very glad, then, that they didn't leave me here to have a good time alone." She turned her head to look at the _Golden Wave_. Her brother was standing at the front of the group of people there, his long hair blowing and making him look like the dominating figure he was. Standing near him was Heero.

Relena's breath caught in her throat and some odd feeling she couldn't quite identify came forth inside her. Seeing him there, seeing him standing there with Zechs, his figure solid, and his eyes stern…it had an effect on her, and it made her nervous that she couldn't decide just what it was. Thought whirled inside her as well as hundreds of feelings. It wasn't… She couldn't be…

Suddenly, Heero's gaze went from where Treize was standing to her. Even at a distance, she could feel the power as their eyes met. For just a moment, his face went from consternated to…something Relena wasn't sure about.__

Her heart stopped beating in her chest. She could've sworn every drop of blood evaporated into steam, leaving her pale. She was burning, but she trembled, and Relena's fists clenched at her sides. His eyes never left hers.

_"Dear God!"_

She was falling in love with him!

---

Review please!


	11. Are you insane?

Hey, guys, I know this is the chapter that a lot of you have really been wanting; the various death threats kind of tipped me off. Enjoy, friends, and be sure to review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Or a submarine. Or…much of anything, for that matter.

Sea of Emotion – Chapter 11

By Gundam Girl

Heero tore his eyes from Relena to inspect the layout. Though the _Rosetta _was a decaying mass of metal, it had a top deck that was almost perfectly aligned with the _Golden Wave_. He'd been able to judge that by seeing if he had to look up or down at Relena's form. She had been dead on in his vision.

"Captain Merquise!" Treize called. "This is how it's going to happen. You want your colonel back, and I want Miss Noin. We have with us a line," he motioned to a member of his crew, who held up a large, gun-like device, "that will shoot from here straight to the wall of your ship, just behind where you are standing." He smiled as many people turned to look at the wall behind Zechs. "I trust you have something that will work similarly?"

Of course they did, Zechs thought. Their equipment was the same as the _Rosetta_'s, only newer. "I do," he replied grimly.

"Then I'm sure you can figure out the rest from there. You will send Miss Noin to us on the line we will be attaching to your ship, at the same time as we send Miss Darlian to you on the line you attach to ours. They should land at the exact same time." Treize smiled. "Have we a deal, Captain?"

Discreetly, Zechs grasped Noin's wrist. "I don't know what to do," he told her in a whisper.

Noin smiled. "You must do what is necessary, sir." Her eyes slid to the side to find his already on her. "When I am at the halfway point, have your best shooter fire. By the time I hit the water, Colonel Darlian will already be here."

Zechs inhaled sharply. "I can't just—"

"I told you before what I wanted to happen. Please…" She turned her hand up and gripped Zechs'. "Fulfill my last wish."

The bounty hunter captain sighed and raised his voice, "Very well!" he shouted to Treize. "In five minutes, we will be ready."

Heero watched with stone-cold emotions as Zechs calmly ordered a few men to fetch the required tools. Although his expression was solidly cool, his mind was working madly. _Two lines, _he thought. _Two lines… _

His eye landed on Noin, the kind woman who, just minutes earlier, had foretold that he would become a great sailor. In her eyes, he saw, was resign. And his blood surged through his veins. Just what in hell had she resigned to? Going back to Khushrenada?

His attention was averted yet again by the men who returned with a line-shooter and a grappling handle. Zechs took the shooter himself, as did Treize from across the water, and both men nodded to each other. The crew was ordered back, and the two lines connected to their appropriate ships with double metallic clangs, the magnets latching tightly.

Relena and Noin were both harnessed quickly and efficiently to the lines. Heero watched the two women acknowledge each other with a respectful bow of the head. He had to fight looking at Relena again. Seeing her only distracted his thinking. And he couldn't stop thinking…

"How about we proceed the old-fashioned way?" Treize's grin was still visible even in the distance between him and Zechs. "One."

Zechs' eyes narrowed, his heart pounding. Behind him, Trowa disengaged the safety of his gun. "Two."

Something glinted in the sun, and Heero saw it. One of the repairmen on the ship was standing just in front and to the right of him. He had obviously been working on something before being called up to the deck; there was a short chain in his hand. Short, but long enough to be held at both ends by two hands. It was well oiled and thicker than the lines between the _Golden Wave_ and_ Rosetta_.

_Two lines! _Without thinking, Heero suddenly grabbed the repairman's shoulder, knocking him off guard, and wrenched the chain from him easily.

"Three." Treize leaned forward and whispered in Relena's ear, "It was fun seeing you again, Miss Darlian."

"Go to hell," Relena muttered before Treize pushed her off and away from the ship.

"Goodbye, Noin," Zechs said. When the woman didn't reply, he gave her the push. He couldn't see the Italian woman's tears.

Both women were moving, and so was Heero. Giving no one the smallest of time to react, he jumped from the ship, straight onto the line Relena was approaching on, holding onto the chain's ends on either side of the line.

"Heero!" Duo exclaimed as the Japanese youth went slinging down the line at a quick pace. "What the _fuck_?!"

Relena was right there, speeding toward him. Heero knew what he was doing, or at least he knew what he wanted to happen. He was going so fast down the line that he was actually ahead of Noin. Ignoring Treize's yell of outrage, or Relena's shocked expressed, he caught the colonel around the waist a bit beyond the center of the line. Both were hanging onto the same line now and it drooped dramatically.

"What on earth," he heard Relena say, but he didn't have time to respond to it. He glanced back over his shoulder, face sweating, just in time to see Noin race toward them on her line. Quickly, he swung out his leg and stopped her path.

"What's going on, Heero?!" Noin shouted. "What are you trying to do?"

On deck, Trowa had his gun aimed at Noin. "Sir?" he said to Zechs.

"No!" Zechs yelled, holding out his arms. "Wait!"

"Tell the captain not to dive," Heero said sternly to Noin while the _Rosetta _crew was scrambling for weapons. "And to open the door on the other side of the ship."

"But what do you—ah!" Noin felt Heero give a hard, swift push to her stomach with his leg, and suddenly she was sailing backwards.

"We're stuck here!" Relena exclaimed to him, her hair flapping madly in the breeze around them. "We don't have anything to propel us either way."

Heero glanced at the _Rosetta_ and then the _Golden Wave_; she was right, of course. Then he looked up, glaring at the sky. "Well," he replied to her concern, his voice flat, "we have gravity." Clutching both ends of the chain with one hand, he pulled an army knife from his pocket, switched it out.

"Heero!" Relena protested, but in no time he had cut the harness away from her body. She didn't scream, though she was surprised, and she clutched at Heero's waist. "We'll die!" she insisted. "They'll shoot us!"

Heero gave her a straight look. "Would you rather have them kill us or give ourselves a shot, real or fake?"

Relena's gaze softened. "Let go," she whispered.

He did, and then they were falling, falling together into the cold, cold water below. They landed with a splash.

---

Zechs watched, horrified, as his sister and Heero Yuy dropped into the sea. Noin was still in his arms, trembling. He'd been the one to catch her when Yuy had pushed her back toward the _Golden Wave_. They stood there together, seeing the two younger people surface, taking in air.

He looked up; Treize's men were armed now, loading bullets and waiting for their leader's orders to open fire.

He turned and shouted at his crew. "Prepare to—"

"No!" Noin half-screamed it. "That boy said to stay above the water! And…and to open a lower door on the other side of the ship!"

The look Zechs gave her was confused. "I don't understand."

"I don't either," Noin admitted. "He didn't say anything else. But please! _Trust him_, Zechs!"

Was there any choice? Zechs looked at the two below, swimming toward the ship, and new there wasn't. He turned away from the sight of his sister possibly meeting her death. Noin's tear-filled eyes took their effect on him.

"Everyone below!" he bellowed. "Stick to the bridge! Barton, Chang, Winner, and Maxwell, you're with me!" He looked and Noin and took her hand. He found that his was shaking right along with hers. "You too," he said softly, and they raced to go inside the ship.

---

Relena was fine with swimming. She was even fine with swimming under fire, if it came to that. What she was not fine with, in any way, shape, or form, was swimming in a goddamn dress; the same dress she'd been wearing on the date she'd gone on with the idiot of a man swimming with her.

"What the hell is your plan, Heero?" she demanded, more out of annoyance than fear. "Do you even have one?!"

"Yes," he said stonily, though he had absolutely no idea when he'd had time to think of it. "We're going to do something very crazy, Relena."

A wave soared toward her; she dove and came back up, her brows furrowed. "I can't," she told him, gasping for air, "think of anything so crazy…as dropping from sixteen feet into the water, managing to survive the impact, and then swimming in saltwater in—" she stopped herself from saying "a dress," "in between two ships. We'll be crushed in a minute, if either of them dive."

"The _Wave _isn't going to dive," he told her. They stopped swimming and let there legs rest for a few seconds, staying afloat with their ever-moving arms. "Noin took care of that. And Treize isn't going to dive because, actually, they're about to shoot at us." He grabbed her hand and got them swimming again. "Which inspired the crazy thing we're going to do."

"And that is?"

Heero met her eyes; they were startled and she was pale, but she was also determined. She radiated courage. He only hoped he could be like that, too. "We're going to swim underneath the _Wave_ to the other side."

He might as well have said they were going to chew at each other's jugulars so they could kill each other instead of Treize doing it. "Are you_ insane_?!" she shouted.

"I already told you that it'd be nuts," he said bluntly. They were nearing the ship. "When I say breathe, I want you to breathe."

"Heero—"

"Breathe!" When she didn't, he knew he'd have to jumpstart it in her. Grabbing her back the waist and back of the head, he moved in like he was going to kiss her; her chest heaved in surprise, and he pushed her under the surface of the water with him, where everything was black and airless and cold. He heard gunshots and clangs against the metal above them.

The _Golden_ _Wave _was a wide ship, but it was longer in length than width. And since they were to the front of it, it was the narrowest they could get to. But it was a challenge. They kicked relentlessly, and Heero released her completely. Not caring if he went blind or not, he did yet another stupid thing and opened his eyes. The salt of the water stung them, and he felt agony, but he kept them open. Beside him, he saw Relena's eyes were closed, but she was still nearby and she was keeping up. He looked forward. The edge of the ship wasn't that far, but his lungs were complaining.

In the next five seconds, they burned. Though he couldn't do much thinking, he imagined Relena was in just as much misery, but he forced his aching muscles to move faster and harder. He would collapse soon, his body screamed that is was so.

But there was light now, he could see it, could practically feel it. Suddenly, there were at the edge of the underside of the ship; he grabbed the edge, and looked back. Relena was no longer moving, and was behind him by about a foot and a half. He stretched his arms, and by a miracle, he managed to hook his leg below the knee around Relena's waist. He pulled, then, on the edge of the ship, bringing both of them out from below the _Wave_. Grabbing her with his free arms, he kicked upward, even kicking off the ship.

They exploded from the water. Heero gasped like he'd just been woken from the dead. He surmised that he probably hadn't been too far from it.

Then he saw Relena, who was limp against his side. Frantic, he could only swim toward the ladder that had been let out of the open door that he saw clearly, just five feet away. In a few seconds, he was able to grab onto one of the ladders rungs, Relena feeling like dead weight in his arms. He saw Zechs at the door, reaching down. The captain shouted something, but Heero could only hear his heart pounding and his own panting breath.

He felt Relena being lifted from his grip, and, like a madman, he reached up to try to catch her, but instead, something caught him; someone was holding onto his wrist. He felt himself being pulled, and then another pair of hands was grabbing him, hoisting him upward.

"Yuy?" someone said. "Jesus Christ, you fucking moron, don't you dare die! God, the Colonel will have your _ass_! Yuy!"

He felt himself hitting something hard; it was cold, but not as cold as the water he'd been in for what felt like an eternity. God, at least he could breath. After only lying still for a few seconds, he was being carried again, and he heard a door shut behind him.

"He is going to be okay, right?" asked a man who sounded emotionless.

"We'll see," answered a kinder voice. "We need to get him out of these clothes. Sally's seeing to the Colonel, so bring Heero to my ward."

_Relena. _Was Relena all right? Damn it, he couldn't see anything, and his eyes stung like hell. He couldn't begin to think of who was speaking, though he knew they were _Golden Wave _crewmembers.

"What did he say?" a gruff voice asked.

For a moment, there was silence except for the footstep sounds that the men were making. "Nothing," one of them answered.

Nothing, Heero thought. Nothing sounded good right now.

The blackness darkened even more. And then, there was nothing.

---

Zechs watched Duo and Quatre carry Heero up toward the infirmary, and he knew Noin and Wufei were ahead of them with Relena. Both of them, Quatre had estimated, would be all right with a dry bed and a long time of rest.

Well, resting was an appropriate thing for them to do. As for Zechs…

He turned to face Trowa, the only man still standing with him. "The _Rosetta _haven't even attempted to dive yet, have they?"

"No, sir," Trowa said calmly. "However, reports from on deck say that Treize is probably planning a getaway as we speak."

"He's not getting anywhere." Zechs smiled. If anything, this would make Relena happy when she woke up. "Alert the Bregenz authorities immediately, Mr. Barton. Khushrenada will be behind bars by dinner time."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I've noted how this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but I thought this would be a good place to stop. At least everybody's safe. Well, except for Treize, but… Oh whatever.

Review please!


	12. I was afraid

Hey, chapter 12 is here! This is my longest fic so far, and though it's not my most popular, I hope you're all enjoying it.

Disclaimer: I don't own GW…or a submarine. Though it would be cool if I owned both.

Warning: Some 6x9 orange (not quite lime) here. Not even enough to be a good warning really, but I thought I'd add it in for heck's sake. There **is **some 1xR lime in this chapter, so know what you're getting into!

Sea of Emotion – Chapter 12

By Gundam Girl

Trieze's shoulders were squared and his fists were taut. He gave no resistance as the Bregenz police marched him from the _Rosetta_ onto the European shore. Members of his crew and his wife were being brought out behind him. They would all be interrogated soon, he the hardest, on who they had robbed and what subs they had attacked. Treize sincerely doubted that many of them could recall details such as those.

He stretched his neck to look over his shoulder at the rusty, partially wooden ship he had called home for nearly nine years. He remembered the risky endeavor of being nineteen and moving up from regular shop-stealing in Austria to becoming captain of a bunch of sea thieves.

His eyes went from the chipped-painted letter of ROSETTA to the hard brown state of his colonel. Anne had been giving him that look of despise since two years after their marriage. He concluded that his wife and his ship were the same – both had once been trustworthy and both were now ready to give up their lives with him.

If the truth was told, Treize could say he was sadder about the feelings of his submarine than of his spouse. Anne was a woman. Women multiplied every day. There was, however, only one _Rosetta_.

Treize smiled, closing his eyes as he turned his head forward and let his captors lead him on into a car that would take him to jail. Once his arms had been released, he reached with some difficulty into his breast pocket and pulled from it a single, scarlet rose bereft of its stem.

He held it up to the image of his ship, docked for the last time. Just before the policeman shut the car door, he loosed the delicate bud and watched it flutter off in the breeze toward the _Rosetta_.

_So long, my friend._

---

Just as Zechs had predicted, as Treize was being locked in a damp cell, the captain was enjoying a steak hot from the kitchen and a glass of strong red wine as he watched the security cameras. The bar was holding a hell of a party; Duo's doing, most likely. Treize had been worth millions, and everyone was expecting their hefty paycheck.

For Zechs, however, he couldn't manage to get into a celebratory mood. His wine was more sour than enjoyable, and his steak tasted bland. His eyes were beginning to blur from being on the double shift, since Relena was still being kept in the infirmary with Quatre, Heero on the bed beside her. So he was on his own.

Thinking of the Florida native, Merquise steepled his fingers and pressed his lips to them as his elbows were balanced on the table that held the cameras. He had saved her. He'd saved not only his sister, but Luchrezia Noin as well. And Zechs was fairly certain that he hadn't even done it to get on anyone's good side.

He thought of how pale and frantic Yuy had been when Relena had turned up missing; how he had simply launched off the ship in a startling mix of courage and idiocy to grab Relena and push Noin back to him; and how he and dropped both of them into the water and forced himself and Zechs' sister under the _Golden Wave _so they wouldn't be hit with bullets from enemy fire.

Yuy was, Zechs thought, brilliant. And impossibly talented. For a man to survive that stunt while supporting someone else was above normal soldier standards. And the man's file said he'd never been in the military.

Maybe he was just odd. Maybe his parents had given him some impeccable hybrid of genes and he was close to superhuman. It had happened before. It could happen again.

Zechs eyes narrowed as he recalled Heero's state when they'd brought him back onto the ship after Relena. He'd said her name with an uncanny desperation. He'd heard that pain in voices before. And only special men risked their lives like that.

Men in love.

It disconcerted him, but whether Yuy was aware of it yet or not, the Japanese youth was very much in love with his sister. Zechs thought of the way Relena had been looking at Heero from the deck of the _Rosetta_…and, if his thoughts were correct, Relena might very well be in love with Heero as well.

Before the captain had time to analyze the pair's feelings any further, the door to the security room opened, and Zechs' head snapped up to see Luchrezia Noin enter. His blood moved faster through his veins, and he stood up. "Officer Noin."

"Captain, I'm sorry for bothering you." The dark haired woman fidgeted slightly as she shut the door behind her and slowly moved toward him. "But I have to confront you about something that's been bothering me all day. What's going to happen to me?"

The question was asked so quickly that Zechs almost had to have her repeat it. But even if he hadn't caught the words the first time, the look in her apprehension-filled eyes spoke loud and clear.

He raised a closed hand to his mouth and coughed to clear his throat before replying. "Are you wondering if I'm going to hand you over to the police, Noin?"

Her face turned a shade paler. "I—"

"It's all right. I'm not the warmest guy on the earth. I understand if you're concerned."

If she hadn't been pale first, Zechs might have noticed the slight blush on the Italian woman's pretty face. Noin was recalling how tightly he'd held her when Heero had pushed her back to him on the line between the _Rosetta_ and the _Golden Wave_. He'd been very warm then.

"But don't worry." Walking toward her, Zechs set one of his firm hands on her slender shoulder. "When I asked you to join my ship, I meant for as long as you wish to stay or until I have no other choice but to ask you to leave of your own will." He smiled down at her, and Noin felt her knees slacken a tad. "You're too good of a person for a cold cell."

She glanced away from him. "Thank you, sir."

Sir, the captain thought. She'd called him Zechs when she had been clutching to him right before Relena and Heero and dove underwater. The formality, now returned, made him ache. Surprised by that, he withdrew his hand and set it to his side.

Suddenly, Noin's posture softened and she gasped in delight. Running to the plastic-glass wall, she pressed her hands flat against it. "I didn't know something like this was on the ship!"

Zechs' face contracted handsomely with a smirk, and he folded his arms as he leaned back against the security camera table. "Everyone loves that."

"Well, I should hope so. It's incredible!" She let out a laugh as a school of fish swam by, their tails waving back and forth jovially. "The _Rosetta_ was nowhere near as welcoming as the _Golden_ _Wave_ is." Her happy expression dimmed somewhat. "It was…harsher." Her hand gently pressed to her left shoulder – the bruises there were healed, but not memories. She looked back and gave Zechs a small smile. "So it seems Colonel Darlian was correct about that place after all."

The sad gleam in her eyes made him feel like he wanted to kill Treize, if it would make a person he cared for happier. It wasn't the first time he'd felt that way. Instead of marching to Bregenz Prison, he stepped forward and took the hand that wasn't crossed over her body. "Treize may not have been kind to you. But please believe that I will."

Noin's eyes flicked back and forth between his own, searching for sincerity. She was shocked to the core when she found it. "Why are you saying this?" she whispered. "Why are you telling me?"

Zechs only squeezed her fingers tighter. "I don't know how Treize felt about you being on his ship, but… _I _want you here. I do, but only if you want to be here as well."

Her chest fell sharply as she exhaled a breath. "I…" She focused briefly on the feeling of the bounty hunter captain's hand closed over her own, and heat speared up her arm and made her feel like he was shooting fire through her veins. "I do," she told him, her voice filled with clarity. "I want to be here."

The declaration filled him with an intensity unlike the protection he felt for Relena, and Zechs only stared at her. Her hand left her shoulder and fell to her side. Her dark eyes met his light ones. Since they were near the surface of the water, a moonbeam cut through the waves and fell across her face. "Zechs…"

He couldn't help it. Grabbing her by both shoulders, Zechs neatly tucked her against him and fused his mouth to hers.

She responded almost instantly, her hands creeping up around his back and curling into the stiff cotton of his dark green uniform shirt, tangling in his pale hair. Their pulses both quickened, racing together as their tongues met, the friction scorching.

Mindless, Zechs pressed her back to the cool window. Her knees rose to slide over the front of his thigh, and he took his mouth from hers to close his lips over her neck instead. Desire flared between them, and Noin moaned.

The sound jerked him back to his senses, and he snapped away from her, leaving Noin in a quivering bundle of nerves, leaning against the window and gasping, her eyes not quite focused.

Zechs was having trouble breathing properly himself, and he scooped up his mussed hair in one slightly shaking fist, then let it fall back in a whoosh. As the air around him cleared of the sexual haze, guilt began to set in. "Noin," he murmured, his voice cracking a little, "that was—"

"Amazing," she sighed. Her eyes drifted shut, only to burst open in the next instant to stare at him with horror.

A laugh bubbled up from Zechs' chest and he let it out with some embarrassment. "I was going to say 'not proprietary,' but I can find it in me to agree with you."

This time, Zechs did see her blush. A furious red color, she cast her gaze at the floor. "I'm terribly sorry."

"For what?"

"For—for— Dammit, for being about to rip your shirt open!" Her mouth was gaping at both him and her own words. "I can't believe I just said that," she muttered, her voice far quieter.

He could only laugh again, and as he took a step toward her, she tensed, and he hesitated. "Relax, Noin." But the awkwardness had already permeated the room. Trying to ease it, he added, "If you want, we can hold off the shirt-ripping for later."

Instead of an actual laugh, she just exhaled quickly. It was close enough, Zechs thought optimistically. "Well." Running her fingers through her own short hair, she nodded. "Okay." Pushing away from the wall, she bypassed him and crossed to the door. With her hand on the knob, she looked back at him and smiled. "Thanks, Captain. For an _amazing _meeting."

When the door closed, Zechs practically collapsed into his hard, wooden chair. _Jesus Christ. Stop worrying about Yuy,_ he said in his head, _and start worrying for yourself, Merquise._

---

Unlike his captain, Heero wasn't worrying about anything…except for the woman lying still unconscious on the bed next to his. There wasn't a doctor in the infirmary right now, but Quatre had been present when Heero had first woken, and according to the blond man, Relena had woken up a short while before him, then had gone back to sleep.

"After a crazy thing like you two pulled," Quatre had said, "it's a wonder that either of you are alive."

Maybe so, Heero thought, but it hadn't felt like a wonder. It had felt like death hanging over them. His eyes settled on the pale-faced woman, her chest rising and falling steadily. They'd finally gotten her out of that half-torn, soaked dress and put her in a plain cotton hospital gown. Someone had been kind enough to comb her hair as she slept. But it wasn't her hair or her clothes that Heero was attentive to. He was paying the most attention to the mottled, purple bruise on the right side of the colonel's face.

_Trieze_. He didn't know the man, had never even heard of him before Relena's kidnapping. But he could conjure up the image of the man's hard, possessive eyes. He'd seen them from the deck of the _Golden Wave_, and he'd noted the tight grip Khushrenada had held on Relena, and how familiar his prim voice had been when speaking to Zechs.

There was definite history between the three of them. What was it? He hadn't entirely gotten over the shock of the captain and the colonel being siblings yet. Any more surprises might put him down for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sitting up, Heero glanced around. There didn't appear to be any other people in the infirmary besides them. Then all he did was watch her. She was hypnotizing him with her gentle breathing, and part of him wanted to reach out and twine his fingers through her hair.

But he didn't do that, and for the next hour, he waited for Relena to move.

She did, just when it read nine o' clock. Her eyes opened with a flutter of lashes. Heero inhaled sharply when her gaze met his. "You're all right," she commented, her voice cracking a little from sleep.

"Me?" Heero replied. "You were the one I shoved under the ship."

Relena studied him with one up-and-down look. He was shirtless, which was enough to make her blood heat, but there was open concern in his eyes. If she didn't know better, she'd say he looked more worried now than she'd been standing on the _Rosetta_. "Well, now I really can say I know this place from top to bottom."

"Relena." The tone of his voice banished her small smile. With a voice not used to admitting his true feelings, he said, "I thought we would die."

She pressed her lips together. With some difficulty she pushed herself up on one elbow and looked directly at him. "But Heero, we didn't. We're alive." She extended her right hand to him. "Thanks to you."

Heero merely blinked at her for a moment. Then, with a short grunt, he swung his legs over the side of his bed and stood up. His fingers slid over her palm, past her wrist, up her arm, until his own arm was wound around her back, and he was sitting on her bed beside her, folding her small, slender form to his.

Relena's hand fell to the mattress, and she sat there, very still as she peered over his shoulder. Warmth spread over her through her spinal cord, and she nearly sighed from the contact. She remembered what she'd thought about on the _Rosetta_ and knew it was true.

She was, somehow, in love with Heero Yuy.

His voiced breathed into her ear, startling her from her thoughts. "I was afraid."

She was silent; if he was going to make confessions, she would hear them without interruption and, if she could, accept them.

"I was afraid we would get trapped under the ship, that we'd drown there. That I would kill you beneath your very home." He pulled back just enough to look into her attentive eyes. "That we'd die beneath the place I've come to feel is home."

"Heero…" She shook her head slowly, bringing a hand up to smooth the palm over his lightly-stubbled face. "But we didn't die. We're here right now." When he opened his mouth to speak, she passed her fingers over it and silenced him. "Together."

Heero threaded his fingers through her hair and slowly, devastatingly slowly, pressed his lips to hers. Relena's eyes fell shut, and her fingers gripped his hair. Their tongues danced, exploring, and Heero rubbed the space between her shoulders, making sparks fly.

She invited him, pulling him down with her as she laid back. He straddled her hips, and she moaned slightly. Heero brushed his lips over her face, across her temple, around her ear. His fingers danced over her stomach. Just as he went back to her mouth, she froze.

Relena lied there, still and stiff as wood. Heero finally noticed after a few seconds, and he pulled back to give her a quizzical look. "Are you okay?" he asked, his tone unsure.

"I…I'm so sorry." She sat up, wincing over a small bruise on her lower back, and gave him an apologetic look. "I really am. I just realized." Her fists, not touching him at all, closed tightly and she pressed them into the mattress. "There's so much about me you don't know."

He set hand over her balled-up one. "I want to know," he assured her.

"I'm sure you do," she nodded. "I believe you, but I…I can't tell you. Not just yet. Not here, when we're like this." She motioned to their close bodies. "I think I…"

She couldn't say it – couldn't tell him she loved him, and she knew why. She feared that he wouldn't return the sentiment.

Or worse, that he would.

Heero removed himself from her, but he reached out and fingered her hair a bit again. He liked her hair a bit too much, he thought. "I can wait," he told her softly. "I've got ghosts, too."

_My past isn't a ghost, Heero_. She watched him as he moved back to his assigned bed; not a moment too soon, as Quatre walked in with a pleasant smile. _It's a demon._

-------------------------------------------------------------

Review please!


	13. What he wanted to do was nothing more th...

This chapter gave me a hell of a time. There's nothing harder to write than big confrontational scenes, I think. I'm very pleased it's finally finished. I hope you'll enjoy.

WARNING: There is implication of rape in the dialogue. It is vague, but it is there. You've been warned.

Disclaimer: I don't own GW.

Sea of Emotion – Chapter 13

By Gundam Girl

It was another day before Quatre would let Heero and Relena out of the medical ward. The young blond man had been astounded by their swimming feat, and more astounded by how their lungs hadn't collapsed. "It must've been a big breath," he joked.

But Quatre, and no one but the two of them, would ever know the truth behind that story; the terror, the desperateness, the total _need _to survive. Some things took more than will or instinct. Some things took refusal to give up.

Relena had been asked by the Bregenz government to write a testimony against Treize. The sea pirate captain wasn't _really _getting a trial, but there had to be something there to show just a little bit of "compassion in the name of justice." The colonel was willing to provide whatever it took to keep the bastard behind iron the rest of his life.

Heero had wandered off to his own room, letting her write the testimony in peace. She had told him, rather bitterly, that she had more than enough to get Treize the death penalty, but she would only write what would give him a life sentence in jail. She _wanted _him put away, forced to sit there and reflect on what he could have done differently.

She felt very strongly about it. And while no one had denied Zechs and Relena knowing Treize in the past, it hadn't been said in the open either. But Heero was positive there was history there, a story untold.

And he wanted to know what it was.

The day before, she had been hot as coals one minute, eager and responsive to whatever move he made…the next, she had locked up, locked him out, as cold as ice. Part of him felt foolish for thinking that Treize had something to do with that, but another part said he was right on the mark.

Heero had seen the man, and for a second he'd even looked straight into his eyes. He wasn't gentle. He wasn't kind. He _was _smart, and Relena respected intelligence. If nothing else, that could have attracted her in the past.

Lying down on his bed, staring at the ceiling that darkened and lightened as the ship sailed beneath the water, Heero sighed. When it came down to it, right down to it, he didn't know Relena well at all. He, on the other hand, was little more than a file in the _Golden Wave_'s database, ready to be read and absorbed at the press of a button. Something about that unnerved him. He felt at a disadvantage.

Glancing at the clock that told him it was getting to be evening, he knew Duo would barge in any minute, insisting he come to the bar, enjoy the drinks, enjoy the lights. Enjoy living one more day.

Heero didn't really find the appeal in celebrating life by destroying your liver, but he thought Duo was free to do what he wanted. However, he was sure as he left his bedroom and headed down the hall, he wasn't about to be dragged into the Way Of Maxwell.

It was when he'd reached the end of the corridor that he didn't know where he was intending to go. The bar was the only true activity on the submarine. He supposed he could go work out and sweat as he puzzled…

Or he could just go to the source of his puzzlement. But men weren't allowed in the women's dormitories without invitation, and doing otherwise was (to quote Wufei) punishable with suspension or termination.

Relena being the captain's sister, it would figure that termination would be the more likely consequence, but Heero didn't believe he would be unwelcome. So he slipped down the hallway lined by the women's rooms. It was mostly empty; apparently Duo had also seen to it that every female on the ship was down at the party as well.

Arriving at Relena's door (marked by a plain plate reading 'R. Darlian'), he raised a hand to knock – then realized it was open, just barely.

Feeling risky, he took his chances and pushed open the door, stepping side quickly and shutting it behind him.

Relena was sitting at her desk, head turned away from him and rested on her upturned palm. "I told you, Hilde," came her solid voice, "I don't feel like—" When her face was turned back, she swallowed the sentence. "Heero."

He smirked just slightly. "So you don't feel like Heero?" He took a step back, testing if he really should be here or not. "Fine, I'll—"

"No, don't. Don't go. I'm…" She looked down at the sealed envelope lying in front of her. Odd, she thought, that it was so lifeless and yet it held so much meaning. "Through with this," she finished. She swallowed again, this time for a different reason.

Heero sensed the tears before they even appeared. "You've been crying," he stated, hearing the immense sadness in her voice. "Why?" Without permission, he strode to her chair and dropped to his knees beside it. "Did someone say too much about—"

"No, it wasn't something anyone said. Nobody's joked about our…ordeal, or anything like that," Relena insisted, satisfied with her term for near-death experience. "I've just been reliving the past a bit too much for one evening."

His eyes, serious and stern, fell to the envelope on the desk. "Treize?"

She stiffened at hearing how terse he sounded. "Yes, some of it," she replied quickly. In another beat she said, more quietly, "Most of it."

Heero thought of Noin. "Apparently, he's wrecked a few lives."

"I'm not wrecked," she retorted, the sentence almost a snap. But she was honestly too tired to snap. "He…damaged me a bit, but I've mended. I've mended damn well."

He didn't say anything for a moment. He was sure that no matter how frosty she had been when they had first met, she hadn't always been that way. After being with her, after knowing her better, she had warmed up several degrees. Certainly, she had been that kind woman for most of her life.

"Yes, you have," he said finally in a soft voice.

Damn, Relena thought, he was sympathetic. "Don't treat me like that then, Heero. Don't look at me like I'll break any second."

"If there weren't tears in your eyes, I wouldn't," he answered honestly.

She stood up and pushed the chair out, walking over to the small window near her small bed. "When we were young…" She paused, and then started over. "When Milliardo – Zechs – and I were young, our parents died. Oh, we were old enough to take care of ourselves. I was twelve, Milliardo was fourteen. We lived with some distant relative, an aunt, for a few years, but as soon as he was seventeen, Milliardo took me from our hometown, a place just outside Paris, to Nice. He worked, I went to school. He had a job with an engineering plant. He made generally good money, enough to feed us and pay rent anyway.

"When I was eighteen, we had our first real brother-sister fight. He wanted me to go to university. I told him I wasn't going to stay in school any longer with him working so much, so hard. He was furious. I started working, then, and our hours mixed up; he worked through the nights, while I was a waitress in the day. We stopped being able to see each other for long than twenty minutes at a time, and whenever we _did _speak, it was always hateful words tossed between us."

Relena's tongue stilled for a moment as she stared out at the sea, recalling things that had passed from her brother to her and vice versa. She smiled a little. "We never meant anything we said, of course. After a few months, though, Milliardo couldn't take it any longer, which was well, because neither could I. He got me a different job at his plant. He hated the thought of me being a servant to other people. He wanted me to be stronger than the obedient French women in town. He wanted me to be more, I think."

Heero wanted to tell her she was more, so much more, but he didn't interrupt her. She wasn't even there with him; she was eighteen again, a girl who argued with her brother and started working for an engineering plant.

"That was when I met…Treize." There was a discernible bitterness as she said the word. "Milliardo had known him for at least two months. He was on the managerial staff, soon to me promoted to vice head engineer. He was shrewd, a visionary, he had ideas. He knew what he wanted to do with himself. And, as he told me after we'd been dating for a year, he saw me there."

Heero couldn't help himself. "You _dated_!" he exclaimed.

She only nodded and gave him a look that asked him to please let her continue. Heero shoved his hands into his pockets and fell silent.

"He saw me there with him in every vision. He wanted to go to sea. He had already had a ship built, a classic submarine of metal of and wood. He's a very traditional person. At first, I was delighted, ready to tell him yes. And then he told me what he wanted to do.

"Prove himself, be stronger than the rest, better than the rest. That was what he described it as, when what he wanted to do was nothing more than simple _pirating_. Stealing, cheating, lying, even killing. 'If it became necessary.' He said that so much. He would do something bad…if it became necessary. He had bought…he asked me to marry him and go to work with him as his wife. And I…I thought about it. I wore the ring without giving him an answer for nearly a week. As for Milliardo, the thought that I might marry his friend made him exuberantly happy. But he knew nothing of what else he wanted to do, besides go to the sea. Milliardo had wanted to do that as well, so… But then the week came about, and Treize demanded a final answer from me.

"I told him I wouldn't. Wouldn't marry him, wouldn't be a thief with him. But he…he had been so _sure _that I would agree and be his and be whatever he wanted me to be. So," she continued, her voice little more than a whisper now, "he got angry. He raged. And he wouldn't take no for an answer. He had never loved me, not for me. But he had certainly wanted me."

"Wanted," repeated Heero, enunciating it because he got a horrible feeling about the word. "You…you mean—"

"Sexually." There was a small bite to the say she said it. "And he felt he was going to have just whatever he wanted. So he came for it. He attacked me before I could even guess his intention. But we were in his apartment, a grand place in Nice. His neighbor was a policeman, a big one. He busted in and stopped Treize; actually threw him against the wall. I was hurt. So he called an ambulance, too. And my brother."

She took a deep breath. "Unfortunately, the police in France weren't very good about attempters of rape at the time, so Treize got off with a warning because he didn't actually do it. And then he became the pirate Treize Khushrenada, marrying Anne Une, who had also worked at the same goddamn plant. Milliardo, furious again, begged me to come with him on his own sea excursion, as a bounty hunter.

"I… I didn't want to stay anywhere by myself, so I did. And this place, this ship, became our home. It's been that way ever since. Milliardo had been trying to get Treize down for _eight years_ – and the day before yesterday, he finally did." She looked at her listener. "Thanks to you."

"Relena." Heero's fists were shaking in his pockets. Were there any words to properly reply to that tale with? He doubted 'I hate Treize' was suitable enough. "I had no idea. I didn't—"

"No one does." Relena's eyes were filled with trust, but wariness as well. "You are the first person on this entire ship who knows the truth about why Milliardo and I are on here, Heero. There's never been anyone I wanted to know before." She hesitated. "I don't think there's any reason for me to say this, but please—"

"It all stays here," Yuy promised. "Every word. I won't tell anyone, Relena."

She stood there, watching him from the window with one hand resting on the thin sill. Her gaze was so very soft as she studies his own eyes. Whatever she saw there, Heero realized, must have comforted her a bit, because she stepped over to him and wrapped her arms about him. He wasted no time in returning the embrace.

"Being with him again was something that wore me out, Heero. I'm sorry for being so…exhausted."

She was apologizing for being emotionally tired. Somehow, that didn't seem something that was abnormal to Relena's behavior. Heero forced a smile. "I'm the one who shoved you into the water."

She returned to the slightly happy expression, and then her face grew serious again. "Being with him again did something else to me too, Heero." Slowly, she rose on her toes, letting her eyes drift close and pressed her lips to his.

_It made me realize that I love you. _

But she didn't say it. Wouldn't. She'd just revealed every important detail about herself to this man who was currently holding her. For now…at least for now, she wanted one secret, one card to hold close to her chest. To her heart.

Heat flared inside of him. Her fingertips brushed across the back of his neck and he inhaled sharply through his nose as he kissed her. "Relena…"

She took a small step back. "I need something from you. I need you to give it willingly."

His eyes, he was sure, were less than focused. He watched through a haze as she unbuttoned the cuffs of her uniform shirt. He spoke like he was hypnotized, but even syllable was sincere. "Anything you want."

Her eyes landed on his, and suddenly he was fully alert, completely tuned in to whatever she did or said.

Relena's voice trembled only slightly as she responded. "I need you."

Heero took a step forward, then another and another until she was close enough again to where he could help her undo the buttons on her shirt. She responded by taking the hem of his T-shirt and lifting it over his head, tossing it carelessly to the floor.

When she was free of the shirt and wore only a bra on her torso, Heero's eyes roamed over her – until they stopped on her stomach and he saw the mark.

Five scratches, deep where they began at the top in tiny crescent shapes, and nearly six inches down her abdomen, thinning out at the bottom. Human scratch mark; one for each finger on one hand.

_"I was hurt. So he called an ambulance, too."_

Heero's eyes whipped up to hers. "Treize."

Blinking rapidly, she nodded. "Please, don't look at it." She pressed against him. "Don't think about him or what he did anymore. Think about me. Just me."

He ran a hand over her hair and thought of her. Heero thought only of her for the rest of the night as they learned each other, inside and out.

And, Heero discovered later, when she lay sleeping at his side on her small bed in the dark, he wanted to learn everything about her. And when he knew all…be the only one to ever do so.

Apologies for the shorter length of this chapter compared to the other ones. I thought this was a good place to stop for this one. Review please!


	14. Don't come looking for me

This fic isn't going to be very much longer, although I'm not quite sure of the remaining length. So, just for confirmation's sake – we are nearing the end!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, its story, or characters.

Sea of Emotion – Chapter 14

By Gundam Girl

When Heero woke, Relena wasn't beside him. He felt over the bed, running his hand along the mattress for the warmth of her, but he encountered nothing but sheet and her pillow. Startled, he opened his eyes, panic slowly seeping into him; he'd lost her once.

He saw her nearly instantly. She hadn't left. But she was standing several feet away from the bed, near the door. Her back was to him, though he could tell she was holding a sheet precariously around her; since she clenched it near her chest in the front, it drooped to the curve of her hips at the back.

From the small window on the wall beside the bed, Heero could tell without looking that they were close to the surface of the water and that it was morning. The sunray's filtering down through the calm sea floated through the window and caused the ever-shifting water to reflect, patterns splaying along her naked back.

Heero now knew the smoothness of that skin and how warm it could be beneath him. Even as slight desire sizzled in him, he extinguished the flames quickly.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly. His voice sounded like it was detached from him, as though he were dreaming. With the light and absolute quiet of the ship, nothing around him felt real. Heero wanted to go to her, to touch her and be sure she was truly there.

But when she turned around to face him, he froze. Her eyes, though not angry, clearly spoke to him:_ Don't come._

Relena seemed to be dreaming, too. Her eyes were dazed and soft, her lips were slightly parted with lack of focus. She was looking in his direction, but he doubted she really saw him.

In truth, Heero was wrong. At the second, her whole world had been reduced to nothing but him. The scent of him, of her, both of them together was still in the air between them. Relena felt branded by it, as though his fingers had made a physical claim on her the night before. And despite all of it, she couldn't be sure: What did Heero Yuy feel towards her?

She had nearly told him. It had begun to slip from her mouth without beckon, but he had kissed her and the short _I love you _had retreated back down her throat.

She was thankful for it now. Selfishly, she didn't want to be the only one with a bare soul. She had told Hero all last night. It wasn't the time for that final bit of heart to be given.

He had risen from the bed, forgoing any attempt to cover himself. Relena looked away as long as she could until he close enough to grip her chin and force her eyes up to him.

"Are you okay?" he repeated, although her defensive stance and look in her eyes more than answered in the negative. He covered the hand she was using to hold the sheet against her. It was cold, and his eyes narrowed. "Relena—"

"I'm sorry." She took a step back as the words dropped from her mouth. "I'm sorry that I'm acting like this. I'm a little worried."

"About what?" Confused, Heero made no move to touch her again. Wasn't it typically men who had morning-after nerves? But Relena was pale her fingers were trembling. "About me?" he asked.

"About _me_," she corrected him. "All that you know about me, Heero… How close you've gotten to me, I just…" Slowly, she raised her face to watch him. "I don't know if I'm ready to embrace all of that just yet."

But she already had. She'd embraced it and him. But for some reason, Heero couldn't say that to her. "Jesus, Relena." He plunged his hands into his mussed hair and went for his discarded pants.

"I know it sounds foolish to need time at this point," she went on as she watched him, "but I do."

Now at least half-dressed, he lowered down onto the bed. His eyes were dark as he looked at her. "Are you afraid of me, Relena?"

"Of course not! I—"

"Then are you afraid I'll betray you?"

There. He'd nailed it, or come close to doing so. Her eyes flickered pain, like last night, and Heero hated thinking he was causing it. But he wouldn't run from this. And, if he could help it, he wouldn't let her run from him.

She spoke softly. "Heero. The only thing I'm afraid of is that you'll start to think I'm not who I should be. And that you'll decide…"

"God." He dropped his heads into his hands, took a deep breath. "There's no certain way a person _should _be. I don't expect a thing from you."

Treize had said similar words, Relena reflected. But they had been only words. Heero looked helpless sitting on her bed, and her heart ached.

But she would _not _risk herself again. Although she was certain that Heero would never physically hurt her, her heart was a whole other matter. Heero was nothing like Treize with the one exception that both men were human. Human feelings, albeit twisted ones, had caused Treize to give her pain. They could cause Heero to give her more.

And she loved him. That was the biggest difference. Even if he did hurt her, she couldn't be entirely sure that she wouldn't still love him. She didn't want that kind of torture. Because in the end, Relena knew that if her heart got broken, the fault would lie with her, and it would be her own mistake.

Colonel Relena Darlian didn't make mistakes.

"I'm going to leave the ship for awhile," she began before she wholly realized what she was saying. "I've been with Zechs a long time. I need to strike out on my own a bit."

"You want to get away from me," he muttered, clearly displeased. He moved to go to her, but she stopped him with an outstretched hand.

"Please," she whispered, almost begging. "Understand. I'm not angry, Heero, and I'm not upset. But I need time to work myself out." As she talked, she put on a fresh uniform, avoiding his eyes but feeling them on her. She willed her body not to heat.

Her hand went to the knob of her door, and she paused. "We're docking in Panama City again today." She felt his surprise even though Heero didn't word it. "I'll disembark then." She looked back against her better judgement.

Heero jumped at the chance to speak. "Relena, I—" But he stopped, mouth still open. Slowly, his lips met again, and he clenched both fists so tightly they shook.

Relena didn't want to believe that tears were forming, but she recognized the long unfelt tension behind her eyes. "Don't come looking for me," she murmured. Her voice still held an edge; she was ordering him.

Her hair flashed as the ship broke the surface of the water. Heero blinked a few times in the sudden light change. When he refocused, she was gone. Light was flooding the small room, but Heero had never known a blacker dark,

o0o

"Explain this to me one more time," said Zechs in a calm, even voice. Although he looked tranquil, Relena didn't have to guess that he was troubled by her words. As of yet, she hadn't justified herself.

"Explanations aren't integral," Relena told him, "but you deserve one. I'm requesting personal leave in order to confront person issues."

Zechs leaned against the wall in the surveillance room, an eyebrow raised. "As your captain, I know you're long overdue for a break, and I've no business asking questions." His expression softened, and she cast her eyes down. "But as you're brother, I'd really like to know what the problem is."

"My own," she answered stubbornly.

"Relena." Her brother stepped toward her and set a caring palm on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

For a second, half that even, she felt like she was fourteen again and all she wanted to do was to cry to him. But for the last five years, he'd been more boss than brother; something both of them now regretted.

"It's Yuy," he stated.

"It's me," she retorted. "He plays a part, but don't resent him, Milliardo. Don't do anything – he'd too good to get rid of and you know it."

If there was one thing the captain hated, it was when someone else was right. "I'll fill out your leave form myself. What will you do?"

"I don't know. I have enough money from the bounties, so I may just rest." She could definitely use it. Looking at Zechs' stern face, she smile a little. "Don't look so _sad_, Milliardo."

He was immediately defensive. "I'm only—" He stopped, then sighed with a light smile of his own. "I'm going to miss you."

For the first time in nearly three years, Relena hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her in the same protective manner he'd used years ago. "I'll keep in touch," she promised. Stepping back, she went for the door. When it opened, she found a startled Noin poised to turn the knob and enter.

"Well," said Relena, face genuinely brightening a bit, "I think I've found my stand-in." She briskly shook Noin's hand. "Congratulations. Captain Merquise will fill you in." With that, Relena walked out leaving the two alone.

Speechless, Noin stared at Zechs, groping for words. The best she came up with was, "What?"

Partly confused, partly embarrassed, both of which were his sister's doing, Zechs beckoned her into the room. "I believe you were just promoted."

Astonished, Noin pressed a hand to her stomach. "She wasn't joking?" Zechs shook his head, and she could only stare at him. "Well then…is everything alright?"

"That remains to be seen. The colonel is on temporary leave and has apparently seen fir for you to take her place."

"But why?"

Zechs frowned. If he had detected a stir between her and Heero, then Relena had surely noticed something between himself and Noin as well. "She's very perceptive."

Noin smirked a little. "Oh."

"This may be unfair of me," the captain went on, "especially since I'm technically your employer." He went to her and set a hand on her upper arm. "But I'm attracted to you. And I don't think I'd be going too far from the mark if I said that you're attracted to me also."

Noin looked him in the eye and tried not to think of how her skin tingled under the uniform of sleeve where his hand rested. "Right on it," she murmured uncomfortably. "But I can't hope for a positive outcome of the attracted, sir, and neither, I'm sure, can you."

Zechs' eyebrow lifted interrogatively. "Can't I?"

"I think it would be to both of our best interests if we—" The Italian woman's rationalizing was cut on by her superior's mouth hard on hers. Her fingers jumped reflexively to his shoulders, neither pulling him closer nor pushing him away. Her eyes drifted closed, succumbing.

When he released her, Noin watched with a stupefied expression as he smiled.

"You're the best interest I've ever had," he told her. He brushed by, deliberately touching his body to hers. "I'll see you later, Colonel Noin."

As he left to go file the necessary paperwork resulted from this morning, Noin wrapped her arms around herself, warm all over.

"Damn it," she muttered, irritated by his obviously responsive effect on her. "Damn it, damn it."

o0o

Heero's stomach refused to unclench. They had surfaced nearly forty-five minutes ago and docked exactly fifty-five seconds ago. He was lying on his bed, gripping the coverlet beneath him, his knuckled blanched with the strain.

_"Don't come looking for me."_

Her voice and those words echoed relentlessly though his mind, repeating mercilessly. Every part of his wanted to race to the main deck and stop her before she could leave the ship.

He couldn't fathom the irony of the situation; they were in Panama City again, the place she'd found him in, and it was to be the place he lost her in. Despite being chilly to him at first, she was what kept his focused and excited about being on _The Golden Wave_. Without her, it was just a useless, cold submarine.

There was suddenly a single knock on his door, and two enveloped were slid into the room between it and the floor, courtesy of the ship's mail distributor. Welcoming a possible distraction, Heero rolled off the bed and picked up his mail.

The first letter was from his old apartment landlord, confirming that he'd paid his final rest. The second was from his old boss.

He had completely forgotten he'd written the old man. Heero ripped open the envelope and scanned the brief script:

_This girl sounds special. So what are you waiting for, then?_

_-Dr. J_

Heero blinked at the test for a good five seconds. The letter both dropped to the floor, then, as he bolted from the room.

_"What the hell _am _I waiting for?"_ he demanded of himself. He skidded down corridors and stomped up stairs until he burst onto the main deck and raced to the dock outside in the Florida sun.

"Relena!" His voice was desperate and his eyes were frantic as he searched for her among the crowd disembarking. He nearly pushed Dorothy Catalonia off the dock. "RELENA!"

There – he caught a glimpse of her just as she was climbing into a taxi at the end of the dock.

"Shit!" Ducking under a trunk that two people were carrying over their heads, he weaved around bodies until he came to the dock's end – just as the cab had cleared the width of it.

"Relena!" She didn't hear, or possibly even ignored, his yell, and Heero watched the car zoom into tourist traffic and out of eyesight. After a few seconds, an animalistic growl rumbled from between his snarling lips and he swung back with intention to hit an adjacent telephone pole.

Instead, he hit the trunk he'd ducked beneath mere seconds before. The two men carrying it gasped as it hit the ground and flung open, articles of undoubtedly dirty laundry shooting out everywhere. Curses and insults were thrown, and Heero sighed deeply.

He was, without any trace of uncertainty, the most unhappy man in the world right then.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Please review!


	15. I feel like you're the one thing in my l...

Hello, all, and welcome to the last chapter of "Sea of Emotion." I'm still shocked that it's over, actually. This fic has been in motion for a few years, so it's going to strange not sitting down to write the next "SoE" chapter. -- But there will be new things after this – well, actually after I finish my other in-progress fics, "Upper Class" (for GW) and "Kites Without Strings" (for Cowboy Bebop). I'm also planning the debut of my Harry Potter fic here later this summer as well, so watch out, any Potter-heads out there! (It's James Potter/Lily Evans.)

Okay, enough babbling, I know. I just want to say thank you to everyone who's stuck with me through this fic. Thanks! I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments. You're all quite helpful.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Gundam Wing. And I've been writing for it a long time.

Sea of Emotion – Chapter 15

By Gundam Girl

Zechs was dressing. He had asked Noin to dinner. He'd done it thanks to the not-so-subtle push by his little sister, whose actions yesterday had basically been translated into, "Get some balls, Milliardo."

And Zechs Merquise would be damned before he was a coward.

They weren't going anywhere too fancy, he reflected as he stepped into some khaki pants. Zechs' favorite restaurant in Panama City was Pineapple Willie's and he had resolved to take Noin there, eating out on the patio right on the beach. That way, they could enjoy a good view and at the same time, not be too far from the ship in case he was needed.

Noin had accepted the invitation with grace, if some slight embarrassment. Zechs got the feeling that part of her thought his feelings extended either one of two ways: sympathy because of her time with Treize or general male hormones.

Zechs was determined to show her that both of those theories were very wrong. He hadn't been in love before; at least, he didn't think so. As a man, he'd known desire, and had been with women, but they were brief flings. To them, he'd been the strong sea captain, and they had been…temporary.

Noin was different. Noin made him _feel_… He could feel sexuality, and while there was plenty of that, there was more. When she looked at him, he didn't think of himself as someone's target for an evening. He didn't think of himself as a target for her at all, or of her as a target for him. She was a person. They were people.

And _he _was a man in love.

The question Zechs had was whether or not Noin had even the potential to be in love with him as well. She had been through rough times on Treize's ship. Noin was now the second woman Zechs cared about that Treize had attempted to ruin. The difference was, with Noin, he had succeeded.

Zechs paused in front of his dresser mirror. No, he decided as he began buttoning his black dress shirt. Treize had _not _succeeded. He would make Noin realize that. He'd make her understand that, no matter what had happened with Treize, no matter what the bastard had done to her, she was still a woman, free to make her own choices.

Even if that choice was to refuse Zechs.

o0o

Relena didn't even bother blow-drying her hair after her shower. Her room at the hotel wasn't very expensive; it wasn't tourist season (it was September) so there were only a few handfuls of guests. There was a very nice luggage boy that had assured her he was at her assistance if it was needed.

She'd even been able to smile two times now since leaving the ship the previous morning.

It was the strangest thing, being back in a city, among people who knew nothing about the sea or living on it. Actually, when she'd flipped on the television, all the available movies had something to do with car chases – on land.

It seemed that her way of living was the less popular one; she'd never realized it before now. Living on the _Golden Wave _with Milliardo had always felt so incredibly natural. It had taken a few hours to realize that she didn't have to prepare herself for any intermittent jolts that might knock her off balance.

She was going sightseeing, maybe even do some shopping. She didn't have very many clothes besides her numerous pairs of uniforms from the ship. Somehow, she suspected that wearing the ship's colors of dark green every day would not be presentable.

She smirked a bit. Zechs would be shocked; she was actually acting like a girl.

Without warning, a sudden flash of the night in Venice with Heero came unwelcome into her mind. She closed her and pushed it away. She was here to work things out, but…not right now. She didn't have the strength yet.

She could only hope to God that she would eventually have it.

Grabbing a jacket (her uniform one), she headed out, making sure her wallet and room key were secure in the inside pocket. Unable to break the habit, she also had the walkie-talkie that connected her to Zechs hooked to her belt. It wasn't on, but it was there – just in case, she supposed.

_In case of what?_She wasn't going back to the ship anytime soon.

As Relena stepped out into the busy city street, she felt the sun's rays duel with a brisk breeze that made her damp hair twine and tangle low over her back. She forced herself to smile.

This day was about her. Not Heero.

o0o

"Heero? It's me. Wufei."

Wufei? What the hell did that guy want? Aside from crew business, he and Heero rarely spoke. In fact, Heero was fairly certain he hadn't heard a word from Wufei since the meeting in Zechs' office discussing Relena's kidnapping a week ago. So Heero couldn't really understand why he was speaking to him through his bedroom door right now.

"I can make an educated guess that you're not up to conversation."

"Then why are you standing out there?" Heero growled, irritated.

Heero heard a sigh, and then the door opened. Wufei stood there, an impatient look on his face.

"It was locked," Heero bit out.

Wufei lifted an eyebrow, then held up the small set of keys he carried. "Behavior monitor, Yuy. Remember?" He stepped inside the darkened room, scowled. "This isn't healthy." He flipped up the lightswitch and light flooded the small room. "I suppose the case is that you're not really inclined to think about anything that doesn't involve Colonel Darlian."

"If you know that, then why are you here?"

"Because you look like hell, you haven't eaten today, it's nearly five PM, and the guy we were originally going to send was Duo." When Heero raised his head from his position on his bed, he smirked. "Yeah, I thought you'd be grateful."

With some effort, Heero pushed himself into a sitting position. "That still doesn't explain your purpose for intruding in my business."

"This particular business is everyone's. Relena is temporarily handing over her position to Luchrezia Noin who, by the way, is at dinner with Captain Merquise right now."

Heero blinked in surprise.

"Yeah." Wufei pulled out Heero's desk chair and lowered into it as though he had all the time in the world. "Apparently, from what the Captain told Trowa, who told this to me, Relena gave him a much-needed nudge. She wants her brother to get moving. So I've come to pose this idea to you." The Chinese man made sure Heero was looking at him. "How do you know Relena doesn't want you to do the same?"

"The same? Oh Christ—" The idea enraged him. "She's got an issue right now, Wufei. I don't think it's anyone's fault, but Relena's positive she doesn't want me around her right now."

"Women always think they know what's right for them."

"_She _does. I know things, Wufei." Heero set his jaw. "Things that she needs time to deal with."

Wufei frowned. "Maybe you're right. I'm only here to drop a note – you should do what _you _think is right."

The ignorant jerk, Heero thought. "What I think most likely goes against Relena's own thoughts about us."

"Well, you can think that. And if you do, you can also give her the time she 'needs,' " Wufei declared, rising. "After all, it isn't my business. My business is helping Trowa."

Curiosity overwhelmed his depression for a second. Heero shot Wufei an odd look. "Help Trowa with what?"

"Oh, that's right. You'd know about this if you'd come out of this room and read the damn bulletins. We're leaving, Yuy." Wufei's eyes sharpened. "At midnight tonight, we're taking off back into the sea. There're bounties to get. Relena asked for time off, but Zechs isn't about to follow suit. He's never going to need a break from this business. It's his life." Wufei went for the door.

"Oh, and Yuy," he said. "I was only joking. Maxwell doesn't even know about you and Relena yet."

It was nearly five minutes after Wufei had gone that Heero stood up from his bed. He looked out his window, at the familiar shores and buildings of his hometown. Relena was there, among his past. Among the place he'd let go of. If he left on this ship again tonight, he'd be leaving Relena there as well.

He dashed from the room.

o0o

"Nice place," Noin commented mildly, lifting her glass to swish the golden champagne lightly and see how the light drifted through it. "Better drinks. What are we celebrating?"

"Your promotion," Zechs told her with a smile. "Not my doing, so I can't take credit. But I thought I could take you here."

"It's…unique," she decided. She laughed lightly at the pineapple grinning insanely on her paper napkin. "I feel like a teenager grabbing a burger. Of course," she added, "there aren't that many burger places in Venice."

"You grew up there."

She stiffened, suddenly aware of how casually she'd spoken of her long-ago past. "I… Yes," she admitted. "I was born there. My parents were glass-blowers. And although that sounds charming, we were more or less as poor as church mice."

Zechs balanced his elbow on the table and pressed his steepled fingers to his lips, recalling something she'd said that had haunted him.

_"You should know that I only came to serve Khushrenada because he saved my life. But I didn't want him to. I was trying to kill myself."_

He swiftly rose. "Will you come walking with me?"

A small smile spread her lips. "Sure."

He paid the bill and within a few moments, they'd walked down the stairs of the restaurant patio and onto the golden sand below.

Noin steeled herself. She had seen the contemplative look in the captain's eyes and knew a question was coming. She wasn't mistaken.

"Noin," Zechs began slowly, "before the conflict with Treize, you told me how you came to be with him. If you don't want to answer, that's your prerogative. But I would really like to know—"

"Of course," she murmured, keeping her eyes on her feet as she spoke. "When I said my family was poor, it didn't mean that they liked it. If nothing else, they wanted something more for me."

o0o

It was late in the evening when Relena stepped into the quirky little pawn shop. She'd been to one mall and was beginning to feel exhausted, but on her way back to the hotel, her eye had been caught by the odd store.

She didn't think she could keep on going without stopping by.

A bell over the door jingled as she entered. The store was dimly lit, giving the place a slightly eerie glow. Relena sat her earlier purchases down near a corner and glanced around, curiosity filling her.

A voice in the back scratched out in her direction. "It's almost closing time. You may want to return tomorrow."

Relena shifted her gaze and saw the hunched man in the white coat, noted his walking stick, his gray hair, but was most focused on the fact that his right hand had been replaced by a metallic three-pronged claw. Over his eye, he wore tiny goggle-like spectacles. The colonel wasn't afraid. She'd known stranger-looking sailors.

"Oh, a young woman. Are you seeing the city?" When she nodded, the old man grinned widely. "I fear I don't have much in the way of pretty jewelry or other such things, but you're free to look around. Are you looking for anything particular?"

"No," answered Relena freely. "I'm just browsing." When she walked slowly around a shelf, she paused. "What is tiny shop like this doing with a retro gear of a submarine?" With her thumb and forefinger, she lifted the tiny, screw-like engine part. This type was much like the model Zechs used on _The Golden Wave_.

"Oh!" Surprised, the only man hobbled over to her and glanced at the gear. "You recognized what that was? You're the first. Spent some time around subs, have you?"

"I've worked on one for years," Relena said. "It's unusual to find something like this out of legitimate dealerships or pirating warehouses."

"Well, I'm not pirating." He watched carefully and Relena set the part down again. "What might you be doing off your ship then, young miss? It's a bit early for retirement for you, isn't it?"

"I'm taking a break," she muttered, more to herself than to him. "The _Golden Wave _will be fine without me for awhile."

"The _Golden Wave_?" Taken aback, the old man's stared at Relena. Uncomfortable, she shifted, pushing her long hair behind her shoulders and unintentionally revealing her rank badge on her jacket. The old man tensed. "Good Lord, _you're _Relena Darlian, aren't you?"

"Excuse me?" asked Relena. 'Well – yes, I am. I'm terribly sorry. Have we met?"

"Never," the man declared. "My name is Dr. J. I raised your officer, Heero Yuy."

_Heero Yuy._ Relena's stomach dropped frighteningly low. "I beg your pardon, Doctor… _You _raised Heero?"

"Well, until he was old enough to take care of himself, which was awhile ago." Dr. J shook his head slightly. "So you're the girl he's been fawning over. I'm not surprised. Why are you here in the city?"

"I'm…" God, what _was _she doing? She wasn't helping anything – not even herself. Despite traces of relaxation all day, she hadn't actually felt happy. Not in the way she wanted to feel. Not in the way she'd felt in Heero's arms. "I'm running," she finally murmured.

"Ah." The way J said the word was with utter understanding. "We all do that at some point. Granted, _I _haven't been able to do any running for quite a few years, but… Say, are you finished here? Can I not interest you in anything?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor." Relena smiled back as she hurried and gathered her things before moving quickly to the door. "I've just realized something urgent I have to do. Hopefully, I'll stop by here again soon. And if I'm lucky, I won't be alone." Without another look to the pawn shop or to the old man, she raced outside.

Dr. J scratched his cheek with his remaining hand, smiling softly to himself. "Well," he grunted. Walking to the door, he locked up for the night.

o0o

It was eleven-thirty as Zechs and Noin were walking back toward the _Golden Wave_. They would be diving soon and both of them had things to do.

Zechs was still having trouble fathoming what she had confessed to him on the beach, with the waves crashing before them and the sunslipping beneath the horizon.

_"I was engaged to a man I didn't love. I know that sounds cliché, but it still happens. Especially in Italy; many families still consider matchmaking a grand tradition. My parents were very traditional people."_

Zechs glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking to the side opposite where he stood, either staring at something far away or avoiding seeing him. He wasn't sure.

_"Anyway, he was rich. My father was certain that money was the only thing that could possibly make me a happy woman. I don't blame him for it. He'd only known poverty, so his way of thinking seemed logical. I don't know whether my mother truly agreed with him or not. She was more like a shadow than a wife."_

As he recalled her words, Zechs' hand tightened on her hers as they walked.

_"I was expected to be the same way. So, the night before my wedding day came…and I lost all courage. I went to the pier. I stood there for a few hours, thinking…but I kept coming back to the same conclusion. Escape."_

They could see the familiar lights of the sub's doors. A lamp on the dock illuminated the blue lettering of his ship's name.

_"It didn't go as planned. I jumped, but within minutes, I was pulled to the surface, unconscious, and when I woke up, I was on the _Rosetta_… Which was already out to sea, below the surface. From that moment, I was Treize's. A failed human who couldn't even end her own life. A couple years later, you found me."_

Her entire being had lit up as she'd looked at him.

_"**You** saved my life, sir. Not Treize."_

They arrived at the door of this ship. Standing by the entrance was Trowa, who held a small box in his hand. "Captain, your order came in a few hours ago."

"Quick work," Zechs commented. "Just how I like it. Thank you, Mr. Barton."

"I'll prep for dive," Trowa said, saluting. For a second, his stern countenance dropped, and he smiled. "It's always a pleasure to work with you, sir."

When the officer had left, Zechs turned to Noin and smiled. "I have something for you. Since I hadn't planned to do this, it wasn't ready before now. I usually plan everything, but…" He shrugged. "Some things call for spontaneity." He took the lid off the plain cardboard box.

Noin watched, bewildered, as he lifted small, metal badge out of the box and held it out to her. She accepted it with deft fingers. **Colonel Luchrezia Noin**, it read, and below it, in slightly smaller print was _The Golden Wave_. Her heart swelled. "Sir…"

"I don't know Relena's plans," Zechs told her lightly, "but she obviously thinks that we are good together. Professionally and personally. Relena has excellent judgment, and frankly…" She wasn't looking at him, so he slid a palm beneath her chin and tipped her head upward so they were gaze for gaze. "I believe she's right."

"Sir," Noin began.

"And if this is going to work between us," he went on, "you're going to have to stop calling me 'sir.' All right…Luchrezia?"

Her eyes flew open. A moment later, she smiled. "All right. Zechs." She put the badge in her pocket, a sign of acceptance.

And when he reached for her, she kissed him with her whole heart.

o0o

Relena couldn't stop running. When she had coincidentally passed her hotel, she'd taken five seconds to drop her bags off at the service desk. They were slowing her down. They were unimportant. The only thing on her mind right now was finding…

She was nearing the docks. She'd miraculously been able to hail a cab to the gate of the port and had begun running the second she'd flung a few bills at the driver. Her lungs burned. She didn't care. What she wanted…

o0o

Heero felt dejected. He hadn't been able to find her anywhere. The city was big, but he knew every inch of it, and no hotels had been willing to give out any names. He'd been physically removed at one of them. But the anger was gone now, and in its place was sheer hopelessness.

It was nearly midnight. He needed to hurry, but his feet continued to drag past the docks toward the _Golden Wave_. Part of him didn't want to leave, but the other part knew he had to. If he stayed, what were the odds that he'd actually find Relena? If an experienced woman like her didn't want to be found, then she wouldn't be. And that his fault.

He'd finally increased his speed a bit when he saw a familiar flash of always-illustrious golden hair. His heart stopped. He pulse ceased to beat. But his feet pounded the pavement as an absurd hope made him race back toward the ship.

Heero skidded to a halt at the end of the dock were the _Wave _was anchored. There, chest heaving with exertion, and eyes welling with tears, was Relena.

The first words out of his mouth weren't at all what he'd thought he would say to her when he saw her again.

"Well, I don't think there's any reason to cry."

Relena swiveled to face him, and her mouth trembled open. In the next second, her eyebrows lowered challengingly, but she couldn't quite keep the sadness from her voice. "Which of us is the superior here?"

Heero walked toward her slowly, regaining his breath and, as he neared her, his heart. "Well. Considering I'm the only one of us not in tears…"

"Heero!" She leapt against him, sighing wearily as his arms came around her. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have—"

"Stop." One hand gripped her around the waist, the other tangled in her hair. "You want time?" he asked tersely. "Fine. I'll give you all the time you want in the world. As long as I can have it with you."

"Heero…" She looked up at him. "I don't need time. I _know _what I want." He opened his mouth to speak, but she raised her fingertips to his lips to silence him. "You. I know that. I _love _you. So much."

He pressed her to him, touching his lips to the top of her head. "I just don't want you to feel like you're jumping into anything you're not ready for."

"Not ready? God." Her tears overflowed, and he swiped his thumbs across her cheeks to wipe them away. "I feel like you're the one thing in my life I never had. The last thing I want is for you to go away."

"Good. Because…" He took a step back and gripped her by the shoulders so that she could see his entire face. "I'm never letting you leave me again."

Relena's only thought as he kissed her was how that was fine with her.

The _Golden Wave _blared out a signal for the final boarding call before dive. Heero looked at her patiently.

"It's your choice."

Relena smiled. Pushing her hair back, she quickly unpinned her colonel badge from her uniform blouse. She raced to the edge of the dock and flung the tiny item into the sea. She went back to Heero and held out her hand. "I'm staying with you. At home."

He gathered her against his side and the headed for the entrance to the ship. "What about Zechs?" Heero asked.

Relena laughed carelessly. "We'll have to tell him he has a new officer."

Together, they walked into the _Golden Wave_. Their home.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Yay! It's over! Just kidding. I loved writing this fic. But this held such a huge change in my writing style (if you go to chapter one and then read this chapter, you'll know what I'm talking about.) A lot of the time it was OOC, which I dread, but I tried. I hope you enjoyed the finale. Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear from you all on any of my other fics. Viva 1xR!

GG


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